First case of coronavirus in Kansas has arrived in Johnson County, governor says
Kansas confirmed its first case of the new coronavirus on Saturday as the disease, which has killed 19 people in the United States, continues to spread across the country.
Gov. Laura Kelly announced testing confirmed a Johnson County woman under 50 has the virus. Kelly said the woman is currently in isolation at her home.
“Public health officials are also working to identify and contact those who may have been in close contact with this individual and exposed to the virus,” Kelly said.
The public shouldn’t panic, the governor said. She emphasized that the state remains at low risk for spread of the virus.
Also on Saturday, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson announced the state’s first positive case of COVID-19, which was reported in St. Louis County.
Mary Beverly, interim director of the Johnson County Health Department, said the Kansas woman did “everything right” by using a mask once symptoms started and then self-isolating. The woman notified her doctor before seeking medical care so others wouldn’t be infected, Beverly said.
Beverly said the woman first experienced symptoms on March 1 and went to her doctor’s office on March 2 or 3.
“If she exposed anyone, it would have been her family,” Beverly said.
Symptoms of coronavirus include fever, coughing and shortness of breath, health officials say.
During events like these, health officials vigorously investigate to find anyone who may have come in contact with the infected person, Beverly said, adding that everyone is monitored for symptoms.
“There is currently no evidence of widespread community transmission of COVID-19 in Johnson County or in the Kansas City metro area,” Beverly said.
But she added the situation is “evolving and subject to change.”
Beverly said the woman had traveled to the Northeastern United States, where there are cases of the coronavirus, but otherwise couldn’t confirm how the woman was exposed.
Asked if the woman had come into contact with someone who had the virus, Beverly replied that “we have not confirmed that.”
“We don’t know that she’s come in contact with an actual case,” she said.
Officials had been preparing residents for the likelihood of cases over the past week, saying it was only a matter of time before the virus turned up in Kansas.
Kansas has the ability to run roughly 60 tests for the coronavirus each day at its state lab. For caregivers and family members, the short turnaround is a “godsend compared to a five-day turnaround, which is very upsetting for everybody involved,” Lee Norman, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said on Wednesday.
Coronavirus in Missouri
In Missouri, the case involved a St. Louis County woman in her 20s who had been studying abroad in Italy, where the disease is more widespread.
Her case is considered “presumptive positive” because the test used has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The test, conducted by the Missouri State Public Health Laboratory, has been forwarded to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to be verified.
The virus has infected more than 100,000 people worldwide and has killed more than 3,400 people. It emerged in more than 90 countries and has edged into more U.S. states, including Florida, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Minnesota and Nebraska. As of Sunday, all but three of the victims who died in the U.S. were in Washington state.
No cases have been confirmed in Kansas City, where Mayor Quinton Lucas released a joint statement Saturday night with the city’s health director and emergency medical services director following news of the coronavirus in Kansas and Missouri.
“While we do not yet have confirmed cases in Kansas City, we know we may have them in the future,” the statement said. “Our Health Department is leading our preparation and is working closely with several other city health departments across the nation. Additionally, cities and counties across our state are working together to share information and we will keep working with our regional partners to keep the public safe.”
The first report of a potential case in the region came in late January when Kansas health officials announced that an unidentified patient was in quarantine at LMH Health (formerly Lawrence Memorial Hospital). The University of Kansas student had returned from Wuhan in China, now known to be the epicenter of the outbreak.
Because tests, at that point, were still only being done by the CDC, it took five days to find out that the man, a student at the University of Kansas, did not have the virus.
As outbreaks around the country continued to spread, Kansas City area universities began canceling study abroad programs, bringing students home and suspending travel to the hardest-hit countries of China, South Korea and later, Italy.
Some of the students were asked to self-isolate for 14 days when they got home, following a recommendation from the CDC.
Preventing illness
From the beginning, public health officials worried that people would panic when the virus hit close to home, as it has now for Kansans.
Without a vaccine available yet, you are a good line of defense in controlling the spread of the virus in communities, officials say.
The CDC calls them non-pharmaceutical interventions — NPIs, those things, other than taking medicine, people can do to help slow the spread.
Mostly, these are the same steps the CDC recommends for preventing the spread of the flu and the common cold.
▪ It can’t be said often enough: Wash your hands. Scrub them with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. One way to keep track: Sing “Happy Birthday” twice.
▪ Use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer if soap and water are not available.
▪ Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze, or direct it into the crook of your elbow instead of into your hand. Don’t just let those sneezes fly. If you sneeze into a tissue, throw it away, then wash your hands.
▪ Avoid touching your face — your eyes, nose and mouth. Be aware of this. You might surprise yourself how often you do this.
▪ Avoid sick people, and stay home when you are sick, which experts know won’t be possible for everyone.
▪ Keep your environment clean. Wipe down door handles, counters, workstations, phones and other surfaces that are touched frequently, especially if someone gets sick. Experts say the virus can be killed by most household cleaners and, for now, there’s no reason to go above and beyond routine cleaning, the CDC says.
The CDC currently advises businesses to encourage sick employees to stay home. It also recommends that employees who show up with signs of an acute respiratory illness — they’re coughing or short of breath — or who get sick at work “be separated from other employees and be sent home immediately.”
The CDC also recommends that businesses not require employees to get a doctor’s note to validate their illness or return to work because health care providers “may be extremely busy and not able to provide such documentation in a timely way.”
Beverly said at this point she is not advising any closures of businesses, organizations or schools.
“So at this point in time, no, we would not advocate for any closures of events,” Beverly said. “But if we see in the near future that that is something that needs to happen, we’ll certainly be communicating that.”
The Kansas health department is adding new information to a coronavirus “toolkit” on its website at kdheks.gov/coronavirus.
The department also has a phone-bank operation staffed 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday and during regular business hours through March 13. The number is 866-534-3463.
For general inquiries, the department’s email is COVID-19@ks.gov.
Prepare an emergency plan
If you don’t already have one, create an emergency plan for your family.
The Department of Homeland Security has a suggested plan posted on its “pandemic” web page, which recommends that before a pandemic is declared you:
▪ Check to make sure you have a “continuous supply” of your prescription drugs. There are concerns that the outbreak might make supplies of medical products and drugs — for both humans and animals — hard to come by, especially those made with ingredients that come from China. The Food and Drug Administration is working with manufacturers to mitigate shortages.
▪ Make sure you have nonprescription drugs and other health supplies ready, including cough and cold medicines, vitamins and pain relievers.
The CDC also recommends asking your employer if it’s possible to work from home if schools and day cares should shut down. If that’s not possible, talk to other family members, neighbors and others to make alternative child care plans. State health officials have said they will leave decisions to close schools up to local authorities.
No masks, for now
Health officials say there’s no reason for people who aren’t sick to wear a mask, for now. Consider: When you’re at the doctor or urgent care, it’s the coughing patients who are asked to wear a mask, not the well people.
At this point, “the CDC does not recommend that the general public go around wearing masks,” said Hawkinson.
In fact, the U.S. surgeon general has said as much.
“Seriously people — STOP BUYING MASKS!” surgeon general Jerome M. Adams tweeted. “They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching #Coronavirus, but if health care providers can’t get them to care for sick patients, it puts them and our communities at risk!”
Includes reporting from The Associated Press.
This story was originally published March 7, 2020 at 5:45 PM.
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