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photo by: Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health
August 17 COVID-19 update from the Department of Health
Updated at 7:39 pm Monday
News emerged Monday of another cluster of COVID-19 cases at a long-term care facility in Lawrence, while health department leaders also announced details of how K-12 schools County of Douglas may provide classes during the pandemic.
Lawrence Presbyterian Manor will begin testing all residents after one employee and three residents test positive for COVID-19, according to the facility.
Meanwhile, the local health department also released information from the Unified Education Command regarding recommendations to reopen schools. With a current infection rate of just over 4% in Douglas County, the county is just below the level of fully reopening schools. At this level, the health department authorizes sports competitions.
Cluster at Lawrence Presbyterian Manor
Lawrence Presbyterian Manor announced his positive cases in a press release Monday.
After an employee tested positive for COVID-19 on Aug. 12, that employee’s close contacts – 10 residents and four employees – were also tested for the virus, the facility said in the statement. Three residents have tested positive, bringing the total to four cases in the past seven days.
Lawrence Presbyterian Manor, located at 1429 Kasold Drive, is now considered to have a COVID-19 cluster, the press release says. This week, all residents in the health care and assisted living sector, as well as campus employees, a total of about 130 people, will be tested for COVID-19.
Residents who have tested positive for COVID-19 will be isolated in an area designated for COVID-19 and will be treated by a COVID-19 response team, the statement said. Asymptomatic positive residents will be quarantined for 14 days. Symptomatic residents can leave isolation 72 hours when their symptoms have improved, after reporting no fever without the use of anti-fever medication, and as long as at least 10 days have passed since the onset of their symptoms.
Last week, Journal-World reported that six residents and seven staff tested positive for COVID-19 at Pioneer Ridge Health & Rehab. In mid-July, the Brandon Woods long-term care facility in Alvamar recorded five cases of COVID-19.
Education Unified Command Schools Reopening Guidelines
On Monday, the Education Unified Command released recommendations on reopening schools. The recommendations include that schools should be remote only, with no extracurricular activities or sports if the percentage of positive cases in the county is above 10%. When the local infection rate is below 5%, schools can start running classes entirely in person or continue with a hybrid in-person and distance model, reducing the number of students in school buildings at the same time. time.
Currently, the infection rate is just over 4%, according to the health department. But if the rate increases to more than 5%, the recommendations call on schools to organize courses via the hybrid option. It also allows the pursuit of sporting practices but recommends banning matches for certain “high-risk” sports, such as football and soccer.
Most schools in Douglas County will not open until September. Perry-Lecompton, however, is expected to start Wednesday and will begin the school year with his hybrid option, according to the school district’s website. Additionally, the Lawrence School Board has chosen to start the school year with six weeks of fully distance learning, which means it will not consider upgrading to an in-person or hybrid learning option described in the directives before mid-October.
On Monday, Douglas County reported 24 new cases of COVID-19 since 2 p.m. Friday, bringing the total since the start of the pandemic to 836.
In Douglas County, 126 of a total of 836 cases are active, according to Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health.
The county has averaged about 10 new cases per day over the past 14 days, according to a 14-day moving average chart updated on weekdays by the health department. The health department changed its chart from a seven-day moving average to a 14-day moving average to match the metric used in the school’s reopening guidelines. At its peak, the 14-day average was around 22 cases per day from early to mid-July. The current average of 10 cases per day is up slightly from the recent low of around nine cases per day in early August.
Ten patients at Lawrence Hospital had COVID-19 on Monday, five more than on Friday. An update from LMH Health said the hospital was once again planning for a possible surge.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment online map showed that 14,954 Douglas County residents had been tested for the disease so far. The county’s screening rate per 1,000 population was 122.3.
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