photo by: Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health

Aug. 28 COVID-19 update from the health department

Two employees at Lawrence Presbyterian Manor have tested positive for COVID-19, according to a Friday news release from the organization.

On Aug. 17, the Journal-World reported a cluster of cases at the long-term care facility at 1429 Kasold Drive. At the time, one employee and three residents had tested positive. The facility then had a round of mass testing on Aug. 18, and everyone received negative results. But another round of mass testing conducted on Aug. 26 resulted in two more positive cases among employees.

“After having all negative test results August 18, we were hopeful that we would have the same this week,” said Jeanne Gerstenkorn, vice president for health and wellness for Presbyterian Manors of Mid-America. “Throughout the course of the pandemic we’ve seen how quickly a community’s situation can change.”

The release said that one employee, who had tested negative on Aug. 18, had not worked at the facility since that date. The other employee last worked on Aug. 25. Lawrence Presbyterian Manor is conducting contact tracing to determine who needs to be tested, and that testing will occur on Sept. 1.

Douglas County has reported 1,303 cases of COVID-19 as of Friday, an increase of 42 cases since Thursday.

The county has averaged about 31 new cases per day over the last 14 days, according to a 14-day moving average graph updated weekdays by the health department. The current average of 31 new cases per day is down slightly from a recent high of 36 cases per day in mid-August and up significantly from a recent low of about eight cases per day in early August.

In Douglas County, 869 out of the 1,303 cases are inactive or beyond the infectious period, according to Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health.

Nine patients at Lawrence’s hospital had COVID-19 on Friday, two more than Thursday.

The Douglas County Community Scorecard noted three new outbreaks of COVID-19 in Douglas County this past week. An outbreak is defined as two or more cases not from the same household with the same identified source of exposure. The scorecard also notes that 24 cases from this past week were due to community transmission; that is, the cases could not be linked to a known case, an outbreak or travel.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s online map noted that 24,327 Douglas County residents had been tested for the disease so far. The county’s testing rate per 1,000 people was 199.

Eight Douglas County residents have died thus far from COVID-19 or with the virus as a contributing factor in their deaths.