The Kansas Department of Health says there are now 21 positive cases of coronavirus in Kansas.
KDHE Secretary Dr. Lee Norman said 19 have been tested through a Kansas lab and two were tested in private labs.
Dr. Norman said about 4% of tests conducted end up positive. He said he will not report on negative numbers.
KDHE also recognizes the importance of providing updated information on COVID-19 testing and will be updating the number of positive testing results for COVID-19 on www.kdheks.gov/coronavirus.
2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Kansas Test Results
Total Positive Cases 21
Private Labs 2
Kansas Health and Environmental Lab 19
Deaths (included in above numbers) 1
Out-of-State Resident Positive Cases 2
Positive Case Information
County
Butler 1
Douglas 1
Franklin 1
Johnson 11
Leavenworth 2
Wyandotte 5
Ford and Miami counties reported positives in out-of-state 2
KANSANS QUARANTINED ON DIAMOND PRINCESS
Dr. Norman said the Kansas Department of Health helped repatriate Kansans back to their homes. There were 10 of them in seven households and five different counties arrived by State Department aircraft.
"Folks from my agency here greeted them, protective equipment as you might imagine, we escorted them to their cars at MCI and the airport at Wichita. We followed them. We had the Kansas Highway Patrol to assist that they had unabated travels back to their home," said Dr. Noman. "We worked with the neighbors that they had to fill up their refrigerators."
Those people are under mandatory quarantine and none are ill.
TESTING KIT SHORTAGE
Five of Johnson County's 11 cases were acquired locally, not through travel or any known contacts. Dr. Norman says that means the level of community transmission in Johnson County has reached a level that requires a change in who gets tested.
From now on, they will only give coronavirus tests to Johnson County patients who are hospitalized with coronavirus symptoms. People with mild symptoms should isolate at home. They will not be tested.
In other counties, you probably won't be tested unless you have a fever of 100.5.
The state is testing more than 100 people a day. It has 500 tests currently. Dr. Norman hopes to get 2,500 more tests or Kansas could be in short supply by the weekend.
PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT
Dr. Norman says there is good news on this front. On Tuesday, KDHE had 10 requests from 10 different counties to help replenish their depleted protective equipment: masks, face shields, gloves, gowns.
"We took to those 10 counties supply and it depleted our existing strategic stockpile by about 10 percent," Dr. Norman said.
DAILY LOCAL HEALTH DEPARTMENT BRIEFINGS.
There are 105 local health departments in Kansas. A retired health department workers will serve a liaison between the state and local department.
For more the COVID-19 Resouce Center can be contacted at 1-866-534-3463.
