How many COVID patients in Kansas City hospitals were first admitted for COVID-19?

On Monday Jan. 10, Massachusetts hospitals began to change their COVID-19 records. Instead of counting all positive cases under one umbrella, the state is setting cases apart with one measure: how many patients were hospitalized for COVID-19 and how many patients test positive after being admitted to a hospital for a separate health reason.

Kansas City isn’t recording cases like that, but our team at The Star has been getting a lot of questions about it.

Especially after we published about the record number of kids in the hospital at Children’s Mercy, we heard from readers asking if those kids went to the hospital because of COVID-19, or if they tested positive after they were at the hospital for something else. We think that may be because of some remarks White House chief medical officer Dr. Anthony Fauci made, and we also think people are just trying their best to understand what’s going on.

We reached out to Saint Luke’s Health System and spoke to Dr. Sarah Boyd, infectious disease expert on their COVID-19 Response team, for answers.

The short of it: hospital beds are filling up around Kansas City because people are being admitted to the hospital with COVID-19.

Are people being admitted to Kansas City hospitals because they have COVID-19 — or are they getting COVID-19 when they’re hospitalized for another reason?

Boyd said that the vast majority of the steadily increasing number of COVID-19 patients in Kansas City hospitals are being admitted with an illness caused by COVID-19 or complications from a COVID-19 infection, and the most common symptoms COVID-19 patients come in with and may be hospitalized for are chest pain, shortness of breath, weakness and falls, nausea or vomiting that is uncontrollable.

She said that the people who have come to St. Luke’s for other reasons and then tested positive for COVID-19 most likely were infected by COVID-19 before they arrived at the hospital because of the high rate of community spread in Kansas City right now.

Dr. Steve Stites, the chief medical officer at KU Med agreed.

“The reality is that the overwhelming majority of our patients who are COVID positive are here because they have COVID,” Stites said at a briefing on Monday, Jan. 10. “If they didn’t have COVID, they would not be in the hospital.”

Officials at Children’s Mercy echoed that.

“Nearly all of our COVID-19 inpatients came to us with COVID-19 symptoms. If they didn’t have COVID, they would not be in the hospital,” doctors from Children’s Mercy Hospital said in a statement.

Boyd explained even further saying that it’s rare for people to get COVID-19 in the hospital because of all the safety protocols and measures in place like universal masking, sanitation, visitor restrictions and more.

Is that helpful question to ask? Why or why not?

Boyd said she thinks it’s a fine question to ask because she said she doesn’t want people to hesitate about going to the hospital if they need care because they’re afraid of getting infected with COVID-19.

“In the first months of the pandemic in 2020, we saw many people delay or avoid needed health care for fear of the virus,” she said in an email.

What else should you know about people being hospitalized for COVID-19 around Kansas City?

Boyd said that with the high rates of COVID-19 cases throughout the metro, a lot of people with cold-like symptoms may actually have a COVID-19 infection and should take precautions to try not to spread it to other people.

Kansas City hospitals continue to break records for hospitalizations, and the metro is breaking records for cases with the rapid spread of the omicron variant.

Here’s our guide to where you can find a COVID-19 test around Kansas City, and where you can find a COVID-19 vaccine.

Do you have any other questions about the latest wave of COVID-19 in Kansas City? Ask us at kcq@kcstar.com or with the form below.