As this rural Kansas county sees surge in COVID-19 cases, governor urges mask mandate
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly’s office once again urged counties to adopt a mask mandate after 10 residents died as a result of a COVID-19 outbreak at a Norton nursing home.
All 62 residents of the Andbe Home in Norton, in northwest Kansas, tested positive. The outbreak comes as the county had the largest number of new cases per 100,000 residents of any county in the U.S., according to the Associated Press.
On Friday, the Norton County Health Department posted that the county had a total of 252 cases and one death. Thirty-nine resident cases had been identified as a cluster at the Andbe Home. The facility said on its Facebook page that 12 staff members also tested positive.
On Monday, Norton County said the facility had 62 resident cases including 10 deaths.
Norton County spokesman Robert Wyatt said Tuesday that there was no update.
A person at the nursing home said they did not have a comment and hung up.
The facility ranked below average on its health inspection and quality of resident care, according to a report from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Its staff rating was above average.
Tammy Steinmetz said her father was one the facility’s residents. So far, the 89-year-old has been asymptomatic, though she said she is worried because he has underlying health conditions.
“I don’t understand how this got through the whole facility,” she said.
When Steinmetz heard that ten residents had died, she “just sat and cried.” She then called the facility to make sure her dad was still asymptomatic.
She said she last saw her father in person in late August. During the visit, she was screened, had a temperature check, wore a mask and maintained six feet of social distancing. But now she wonders if the measures at the nursing home were enough.
Gov. Kelly’s office said they were informed of the outbreak at the facility on Saturday and have provided test kits, PPE, ventilators and the medication remdesivir to the county to mitigate the outbreak. Remdesivir was authorized for emergency use earlier this year, but its effectiveness is now in question after a study by the World Health Organization found it did not help hospitalized patients, the AP said.
On June 29, Kelly said she was implementing a mask order beginning July 3. At the time, 14,443 people had contracted the coronavirus.
But the majority of the state’s 105 counties rejected the mandate.
Over the summer and as school restarted, the number of cases continued to climb, spreading into rural areas. Norton County is one of 32 counties in Kansas in the red zone for its two-week positive test rate. The state’s most populous counties are in green or yellow zones.
“Governor Kelly remains concerned about the rising rates of COVID-19 in rural Kansas communities, and strongly encourages counties to adopt her order mandating that residents wear protective masks whenever they are in public and unable to social distance,” her office said in a statement to The Star.
The Facebook page for the Norton Telegram shows several indoor events — a concert, school board meeting and a ceremony honoring veterans, among others — with few people wearing masks.
As of Tuesday, Kansas has reported 72,968 cases. Statewide, 872 people have died, according to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
This story was originally published October 20, 2020 at 5:10 PM with the headline "As this rural Kansas county sees surge in COVID-19 cases, governor urges mask mandate."
