As Kansas looks to reopen, COVID-19 testing lags. But Kelly says help is on the way
Testing for the new coronavirus will be key to preventing outbreaks in Kansas as the state begins to lift restrictions and reopen, public health experts have said.
In recent days there has been little sign of more testing in the state, which has consistently ranked last in the country in per-capita testing as public health officials struggled to get supplies. On average over the past two weeks, the state has been reporting the results of about 1,000 tests daily, and the numbers have mostly been declining since April 24.
But Gov. Laura Kelly, who is scheduled to announce on Thursday evening her plan to reopen the state, has said testing help is on the way.
Kelly has said the standards that will guide the state’s reopening will center on COVID-19 testing, the ability of hospitals to handle a surge in cases, the availability of personal protective equipment and the scope of contact tracing to identify and quarantine those exposed.
“Testing has lagged behind throughout Kansas,” Kelly said Wednesday at a news briefing. “But the problem is amplified in our rural parts of the state where access to health care and testing is more elusive.”
In recent weeks, COVID-19 cases have spiked in Ford, Finney and Seward counties, where six meatpacking plants have become clusters sites with 451 cases. Across the state, another 49 outbreaks have been identified.
On Wednesday, Kelly said the state ordered 500,000 testing kits from an overseas supplier. The first 5,000 have cleared customs and batches of 10,000 will be delivered weekly until the order is fulfilled, Kelly said. The federal government is also sending 50,000 over the next two weeks.
“These additional kits will expand our ability to test more Kansans, which will inform our decision making process based on data as we move through the recovery phases,” she said.
Staff from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been deployed to southwest Kansas to provide support.
The state’s stay-at-home order ends at midnight on May 3. Without more widespread testing, public health officials have said, the prevalence of the virus remains unclear.
“We don’t really know how many people have it and don’t have it,” said Steve Stites, chief medical officer at the University of Kansas Health System.
On Wednesday, Kansas reported 3,738 COVID-19 cases including 125 deaths. Another 25,720 tests have been conducted with negative results.
The number of test results peaked April 24 when an additional 2,265 tests were reported. Of those, 295 were positive. Officials attributed the jump to the clearing of a backlog of private lab cases and increased testing in rural counties.
Since then, numbers have declined. On Monday, 940 new test results were reported. On Tuesday, the figure fell to 923 before increasing Wednesday to 1,368.
An average of 1,056 tests have been reported daily in the past two weeks.
Numbers may be impacted by labs reporting information at different times and weekend delays, said Kristi Zears, spokeswoman for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
