photo by: Screenshot/Kansas Governor's Office

Gov. Laura Kelly, right, gives her daily COVID-19 briefing Monday, April 13, 2020, in Topeka.

Unemployment numbers in Kansas continue to paint a grim picture of the effects the COVID-19 pandemic is having on the state.

Gov. Laura Kelly announced Monday at her daily briefing that in the last three weeks 130,000 Kansans have filed an initial claim for unemployment insurance — 55,000 of which came in the last week.

For perspective, that’s a 3,400% increase over the same week last year, when 1,405 claims were filed. Claims filed online are also up 6,833%, Kelly said.

As unemployment claims have continued to skyrocket, so to have issues with the decades-old technology available at the state’s Department of Labor office. Kelly said her office and Labor Secretary Delia Garcia have been scrambling to make alterations to serve as many Kansans as possible.

“You can’t change decades of neglect over 40 years overnight,” Kelly said.

Also on Monday, Kelly said she participated in a governor’s conference call with Vice President Mike Pence and members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. The federal leaders, Kelly said, are continuing efforts to ramp up the testing capacity for the virus across the country.

Kelly is also staying in close communication with members of Kansas’ congressional delegation and will host a virtual town hall with U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., next week.

“I sincerely appreciate all they’re doing to advocate for Kansas’ needs in Washington,” Kelly said.

Monday saw a slowed increase of COVID-19 cases in the state, with only 39 new cases — a lower increase than normal for the start of a week. Kansas’ total case count now stands at 1,376. The state Department of Health and Environment also confirmed 62 total deaths from the virus, up from 56 on Sunday.

The 1,376 cases are out of 13,864 total tests, meaning that 9.9% of Kansans being tested are positive for the virus. Research indicates, though, that COVID-19 tests may have a high false-negative rate, and it’s almost certain that Kansas has many more cases of the virus that aren’t known due to a lack of adequate testing supplies.

There are now 309 hospitalizations in Kansas due to the virus, out of 1,079 cases where data is being tracked, KDHE said. At 28.6%, that puts the state hospitalization rate below 30% for the first time since March 30.

To this point, Kansas has confirmed 23 clusters — or outbreaks — of coronavirus, said KDHE Secretary Lee Norman. Twelve of those occurred in long-term care facilities, two in group care facilities, three from private gatherings, one at the Lansing Correctional Facility and five from religious gatherings.

Kansas, Norman said, still lacks the necessary amount of swabs to perform widespread testing for COVID-19. A swab must be made entirely of synthetic material or else it invalidates the test, and, as states vie for supplies, Kansas has been left behind since its caseload is relatively lower. But there may be a solution to the lack of supplies, Norman said Monday.

COVID-19 test swabs can be made from a 3-D printer that many dentist offices have on hand, the secretary said. The state will be putting out a request to partner with dentists around the state, much like it did when Kelly’s office requested testing columns from research labs in March.

An increase in swabs would greatly assist KDHE’s ability to do its own testing; currently, private labs account for around 80 percent of tests in Kansas.

“We could run 700 to 1,000 tests per day,” Norman said.

Kansas is still expected to see its COVID-19 peak around April 20, Norman said, though the true peak won’t be known until later, as the state must be seven to 10 days beyond the peak to know for sure. Norman also praised social distancing and other efforts to prevent the virus’s spread.

“We are outperforming where we might have been, had those efforts not been put in place,” he said.

Confirmed COVID-19 cases in Kansas

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