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1 in 5 Kansas nursing homes had a staffer test positive for COVID last week, report says

Wichita Eagle - 10/23/2020

Oct. 23--A White House report suggests rural Kansans are not taking the coronavirus pandemic as seriously as they should after a week where 1 in 5 nursing homes in the state had an employee test positive for COVID-19.

"Work with rural communities to demonstrate how real the disease is in their communities," the White House recommended to public health officials in Kansas.

The report, dated Sunday and obtained by the Center for Public Integrity, noted that 22% of nursing homes in Kansas had at least one new staff COVID-19 case last week. There were new resident cases at 10% of nursing homes and new resident deaths at 6% of nursing homes.

The White House COVID-19 task force also recommend that Kansas create targeted messaging for senior citizens on mitigation efforts.

"Kansas must continue the strong mitigation efforts statewide," the report states. "Mitigation efforts should continue to include mask wearing, physical distancing, hand hygiene, avoiding crowds in public and social gatherings in private, and ensuring flu immunizations."

It also suggests avoiding businesses that do not enforce those health guidelines.

"Encourage use of retail establishments that are enforcing mitigation efforts," the report recommends.

Compared to the rest of the United States, Kansas had the 17th-highest rate of new cases, the 10th-highest positive test rate and the fourth-highest death rate per population last week, according to the report.

The recommendations from President Donald Trump's administration come as rural areas of Kansas are experiencing an explosion in cases and Gov. Laura Kelly has suggested a new statewide mask mandate. More than 80% of the state's 105 counties are in the red zone for the rate of new COVID-19 cases compared to population.

"For months, many have mistakenly shared the idea that this virus would never reach our rural and lower population communities.," Kelly said Wednesday. "Now it is worse in those towns and counties than it is in in our cities. Harmful anti-mask and anti-science rhetoric has politicized our ability to tackle a public health issue, much of it coming from our elected officials."

Norton County had the largest number of new cases per 100,000 residents of any county in the U.S. for the two weeks ending Sunday, the Associated Press reported.

The local health department reported on Monday that all 62 residents of the Andbe Home in Norton have tested positive, and 10 have died. On Wednesday, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment reported 74 cases connected to the nursing home active cluster.

In a Monday news release, the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living warned of an increase in COVID-19 cases at long-term care facilities.

"The number one factor in keeping COVID out of our nursing homes, so we can protect our vulnerable population is reducing the level of the virus in the surrounding community," read a statement from Mark Parkinson, the CEO of AHCA/NCAL and a former governor of Kansas.

The KDHE's weekly nursing home metric, which is a measure of the positive test rate and the level of testing compared to population, had 35 of the state's 105 counties in the red zone. The nursing home red zone equates to a positive test rate above 10% in the county, which means long-term care facilities must test their staff at least twice a week.

The rule was set by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The White House report recommends more contact tracing infected staff at Kansas facilities "to decrease introduction of community transmission to nursing homes."

The report also notes that, on average, 74 confirmed COVID-19 patients and 69 suspected COVID-19 patients were hospitalized every day in Kansas last week. Federal officials think those numbers are under-reported, which "may lead to a lower allocation of critical supplies." Hospitals need access to antivirals and antibodies for early treatment.

In Pittsburg, the Morning Sun reported that local hospital capacity is strained due to an influx of COVID-19 patients from the less-populated surrounding counties that have looser pandemic restrictions.

"We're allowing these other counties that are doing basically nothing to fill our hospitals, which takes away from our county constituents," Crawford County Commissioner Tom Moody said, according to the newspaper. "Would it be beneficial if we tried to get a meeting with the other counties to let them know our feelings on this? Because to me it's (expletive) that they're doing this, and it really upsets me."

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