Douglas County COVID-19 symptom survey closes at 5 p.m. Monday; 9,000 responses over weekend

photo by: Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health

Thousands of people had responded to the local health department’s online survey about COVID-19 symptoms as of Monday morning, and officials are encouraging more participation before the survey closes Monday evening.

In light of severely limited testing capabilities in the state, Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health and its Unified Command partners on Friday asked Douglas County residents to complete a short survey that they hope can help identify how potentially prevalent the virus is in the community. The survey asks for participants’ age, sex, race, zip code and whether or not they are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, among other questions. It takes about three minutes to complete.

Links to survey

• English

• Spanish

• Chinese

Health department spokesman George Diepenbrock said that, as of Monday morning, more than 9,000 people had responded to the survey. Diepenbrock said the department hopes to see more people complete the survey before it closes at 5 p.m. Monday. He also noted that while the department is collecting the data because it might help it make better decisions in the future, the most important thing is for the public to continue social distancing and staying at home.

As of Sunday afternoon, the local health department had confirmed 43 cases of COVID-19 in Douglas County residents since March 16. Although the county has one of the higher rates of testing in the state, Kansas has one of the lowest rates of testing in the entire country, state leaders have said.

People who do not complete the first survey will still be able to participate in future ones. However, the health department said it is useful to have the same people fill out the survey each week, so that results may be compared.

Information provided in the survey will be confidential and will be used only by Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health to help determine the prevalence of COVID-19 in the community. It can be accessed on the health department’s website, ldchealth.org.

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What to do if you think you may have COVID-19

Patients who have symptoms — difficulty breathing, cough and fever — should stay home, immediately isolate themselves from others and call their health care providers. Patients should never show up unannounced at a medical office or hospital. Instead, they should call ahead to explain their symptoms and give health care workers the ability to minimize the risk to others.

If patients do not have health care providers, they may call the Lawrence Douglas-County health department’s coronavirus line, 785-856-4343.

For updated information on the outbreak, Kansas residents can email COVID-19@ks.gov or call 866-534-3463 (866-KDHEINF), which is staffed 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday; 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday; and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.

More information can be found through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s website or the Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health website.