CDC: Missouri has highest rate of COVID delta variant in US. State officials disagree
Missouri has the highest rate in the country of cases of the highly contagious COVID-19 delta variant, according to the latest estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But Missouri health officials who warned the public last week about the variant say that’s not an accurate picture because the sample size was so small.
Data published on the CDC website says 29% of 309 Missouri specimens collected over the four weeks ending June 5 were the delta variant. Health officials expect that variant, first detected in India, to soon become the dominant form of COVID-19 in the United States.
“But what is accurate, there is no doubt, (is) that delta virus is increasing in Missouri,” said state epidemiologist Dr. George Turabelidze in an update Wednesday.
The COVID-19 news out of Missouri is grim lately. The state is ranked worst in the nation for the overall rate of COVID-19 cases, according to a New York Times tracker.
In Kansas, more than 100 cases of the delta variant have been diagnosed, prompting concern that this variety could cause more severe illness and hospitalizations.
Unlike Kansas, Missouri does not publicize variant cases, though it does provide a map of COVID “hot spots” in the state — mostly rural areas.
Delta is believed to be the most transmissible variant yet, spreading more easily than both the original virus and the alpha variant first detected in Britain.
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services has found the delta variant in some Kansas City area wastewater treatment facilities, a sign that the variant is taking hold here. The health department posts a map showing those locations online.
Missouri officials have said they can’t accurately provide data for the delta variant.
Turabelidze said it’s “hard to say because the only way you can identify variant virus is to do sequencing of the clinical samples. There is no state in the country, there is no country in the world that can do sequencing on every possible sample.”
Only 25 states are included in the CDC’s latest report because some states “don’t even have enough data … which means we don’t know the percentages of our neighboring states,” said Turabelidze. “Our sample is the smallest out of those … which makes this number even less accurate.”
California, for instance, provided the most samples for testing, nearly 2,600. Kansas is not included on the ranking.
“I’m not minimizing (the) number in Missouri, but because the statistic is not strong, this number may change and it’s not highly accurate,” said Turabelidze.
Delta hits Kansas, too
Local health officials expect the delta variant to become the dominant strain in the Kansas City area within a matter of weeks.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment provides a county by county breakdown of the number of variant cases, including delta. But at best, those numbers are estimates because counties, including Johnson and Wyandotte, do not test every COVID-19 case for variants. The statistics are publicized on a map at coronavirus.kdheks.gov.
According to that data, six delta cases were reported in Johnson County as of Wednesday.
There have been no cases reported in Wyandotte or Leavenworth counties, and only one in Douglas County, home to Lawrence and the University of Kansas.
Sedgwick County, which includes Wichita, leads the state with 52 reported delta cases, followed by 11 in Riley County.
Health officials in Wyandotte County say they are working with the state health department to increase that testing, which in the next couple of weeks will include checking for variants on all positive tests run through the lab the county works with.
And in Johnson County, health officials are collecting samples for genomic sequencing from people with breakthrough cases — folks who are fully vaccinated who test positive for COVID-19 — and people who get reinfected.
Genomic sequencing on samples drawn from Kansans identified 47 mutated versions of coronavirus, said Dr. Lee Norman, the state’s health secretary.
In all, 1,460 people in 60 Kansas counties have contracted one of the variants.
Nearly 700 of those cases were concentrated in Sedgwick County. Johnson County follows with 165. There were 148 in Shawnee County, 44 in Douglas and 20 to 35 cases each in Wyandotte, Finney, Cowley, Labette, Crawford and Geary counties.
Norman said the 110 confirmed cases of delta — recently labeled “coronavirus on steroids” by a former White House adviser — amounted to 7.5% of Kansas’ variant cases.
“We cannot ease up on our effort,” said Norman, who has continued to urge people to be vaccinated. “We just cannot let up.”
“The Delta variant is currently the greatest threat in the U.S. to our attempt to eliminate COVID-19,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, said at a briefing this week.
The vaccines authorized in the United States work against it and other variants. “We have the tools,” Fauci said. “So let’s use them, and crush the outbreak.”
KC hospitals are nervous
As cases rise across Missouri, Kansas City hospital officials are preparing for the ripple effects.
Local chief medical officers are nervous, for instance, about hospitals in Springfield running out of room because of rising COVID-19 cases there — most are reportedly the delta variant — and transferring patients to other hospitals, a predicament not seen in six months.
“I think we’re all getting just a little twitchy about what’s going on in Springfield around the delta variant, especially in those counties where people weren’t vaccinated,” Dr. Steve Stites, chief medical officer at The University of Kansas Health System, said during a Wednesday briefing.
“I think what’s gotten Springfield in trouble, and Springfield’s in trouble again, is that so many people have been unvaccinated. And what it reveals is the weakness of a strategy of the wait and see approach.
“The problem is, are you going to wait and see what the vaccination is like or are you going to wait and see what COVID’s like? And I think that’s the dilemma people face.”
Worlds of Fun pass if you get the shot
The concern for hospital officials is unvaccinated people who are still getting sick enough with COVID-19 to be hospitalized.
“We are seeing a lot more younger people come to the hospital because older people have been vaccinated,” Dr. Dana Hawkinson, medical director of Infection Prevention and Control at the KU Health System, said this week.
“They are developing problems that are 100% preventable if they were to get vaccinated.”
Rural areas in Missouri have been singled out for their low vaccination rates. But urban counties are struggling, too.
In Wyandotte County, for instance, 39.3% of residents have received at least one vaccine dose, compared to the statewide average of nearly 44%, according to the state health department.
This week the Unified Government Public Health Department launched #IHelpedConquerCOVID, an incentive program to get residents vaccinated or tested.
The county is offering Worlds of Fun and Oceans of Fun passes, and dinner and game passes at Dave & Buster’s for ages 12-17, and daily drawings for $500 Visa gift cards for older residents who get vaccinated.
“We know not everyone is excited about the idea of getting vaccinated,” Nicole Garner of the health department said in announcing the incentives campaign.
“For some people, maybe they have had bad experiences in healthcare settings before that make them not so eager to come in. For others, the possibility of side effects like headache or fatigue make them put off getting vaccinated.
“This is a way to encourage folks to consider making time to come in now, and thanking them for helping protect our community.”
Includes reporting by Tim Carpenter of Kansas Reflector.
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