Why is Wyandotte County the deadliest place in Kansas for the coronavirus?

Wyandotte County is the deadliest place in Kansas for the coronavirus.

As of Friday, Wyandotte County had reported 20 deaths from COVID-19. That’s more than Johnson County, with 12 deaths, or Shawnee and Sedgwick Counties.

The news is even worse if you consider coronavirus cases on a per-person basis. Sedgwick County, which includes Wichita, has had about one coronavirus case per 3,800 residents, while Johnson County has found one case per 2,500 people.

On Thursday, Wyandotte County had a confirmed case for every 628 residents.

Those statistics are shocking, and there can be no denial that poorer communities, and communities of color, are bearing a disproportionate burden of sickness and grief in the COVID-19 pandemic.

To be sure, there are unique circumstances in Wyandotte County. One facility, Riverbend Post Acute Rehabilitation center, has reported 10 deaths and 84 infections of residebpatients. That’s jaw-dropping — in January, Riverbend had just 118 patients.

Why such a poor record? An inspection that month said Riverbend “failed to provide a sanitary environment to help prevent the development and transmission of infections” while changing a patient’s wound dressing. To be fair, a later report said the deficiency had been corrected.

“Infection control remains our highest priority in the current environment,” Riverbend executive director Cory Schulte said in a statement on the facility’s website. Inspectors with the state of Kansas and Wyandotte County must make sure that’s the case — or close the facility and transfer patients to other places.

But it would be a mistake to believe Riverbend’s problems are the only explanation for the health challenges in Wyandotte County. Of Kansas’ 105 counties, Wyandotte County ranks 99th for health outcomes, according to one survey.

Why? Perhaps because health care for poor people, particularly in a state which stubbornly refuses to expand Medicaid, is an enormous problem.

Half of Wyandotte County is African-American or Hispanic. Nearly one in five residents lives below the poverty line, and 17% of residents lack health insurance.

“We have known for a long time that Wyandotte County faces health inequities greater than those faced by a lot of other communities in our state,” said Unified Government spokesman Mike Taylor in an email.

“The fact that we have more people without health insurance or regular access to health care, and higher rates of many chronic health conditions, puts much of our population at greater risk.”

Those statements are undoubtedly true. But no Kansan should be willing to accept a higher rate of infection and death in Wyandotte County just because its residents are poor. The state and county must accelerate efforts to reach residents who need help.

To its credit, the Unified Government Health Department has stepped up testing for coronavirus, although Kansas still lacks access to tests. Wyandotte County moved relatively early to impose social distancing guidelines and restrict non-essential travel, which has helped reduce the rate of infection.

But more must be done. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment should dedicate additional resources, if needed, for contact tracing and patient modeling. If more resources are needed for information and counseling, they should be provided.

And residents should continue to follow distancing guidelines. Of the 12 instances of coronavirus clusters in Kansas, three have come from churches, including at least one in Wyandotte County. That’s why Gov. Laura Kelly’s order to restrict church services to 10 congregants or less was so important, and why Republican legislative leaders were so foolish to overturn the order.

Kansas Sen. David Haley, who represents Kansas City, Kansas, called the decision idiotic.

On Friday, U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, a Kansas Republican, said governments must improve their investment in public health infrastructure, such as community health centers and health departments. “They have not received the attention that they deserve,” he said.

He’s right. But that’s only a start: Kansas must focus intensely on the problems in Wyandotte County, to figure out how to stop the spread of a terrible disease, and put an end to the tragic outcomes there.

This story was originally published April 12, 2020 at 5:00 AM.