COVID-19 count in Douglas County increases to 44

photo by: Contributed/LMH Health

A COVID-19 drive-thru testing site at Lawrence's hospital, LMH Health, is pictured Tuesday, April 7, 2020.

The number of Douglas County residents who have tested positive for COVID-19 is 44, local health officials reported Wednesday.

That’s an increase of one case from the previous total of 43, which had held steady since Saturday.

Of those 44, 27 cases are believed to have been contracted through travel, eight from local transmission and eight from contact with someone with a positive case. One case is still under investigation for type of transmission.

Contact with a positive case means the health department has determined the person’s exposure to a known positive case was the source of his or her contracting COVID-19, whereas local transmission means the department’s investigators could not identify the source of the person’s disease and the person had not recently traveled to an area where COVID-19 was present.

The 44 local cases involve two people in their late teens, 18 people in their 20s, 11 people in their 30s, six people in their 40s, four people in their 50s, one person in his or her 60s, one person in his or her 70s and one person who is over the age of 80, according to Wednesday’s news release from the health department. Of those cases, 23 are men and 21 are women, the health department said.

Thirty-five out of the 44 people with cases of COVID-19 have recovered.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment announced that, as of 11 a.m. Wednesday, a total of 2,211 Kansas residents had tested positive for COVID-19, including 110 deaths as a result of the disease.

KDHE’s online map noted that 1,127 Douglas County residents have been tested for the disease so far. The county’s testing rate per 1,000 people was 9.22, the 11th highest in the state.

On Wednesday afternoon, KDHE’s online map stated that the number of cases in Douglas County was 43. Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health’s information about the number of COVID-19 patients in the county was updated as of 3 p.m. Wednesday, whereas KDHE’s information was updated as of 11 a.m.

The daily update from LMH Health announced that, as of 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, there were two patients at Lawrence’s hospital with COVID-19 and two who were under investigation for the virus. LMH Health was using none of its ventilators on Wednesday, 4% of its critical care (ICU) beds and 27% of its hospital beds.

LMH Health had collected a total of 982 specimens for COVID-19 testing as of Wednesday, and 39 of those specimens had tested positive for the virus. On Tuesday alone, LMH Health collected 20 specimens.

More coverage: Coronavirus (COVID-19)

As the pandemic continues, the Journal-World will be making coverage of COVID-19 available outside of the paywall on LJWorld.com.

Find all coverage of city, county and state responses to the virus at: ljworld.com/coronavirus/

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.

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