Kansas coronavirus cases skyrocket from hundreds to thousands per week - KAKE

The delta variant is plowing through a lightly vaccinated population, and multiplying fast.

“Five weeks is a long time,” deputy state health officer Joan Duwve said.

The delta in Kansas.

In late April, Kansas identified its first case of the delta variant.

Not satisfied with hugging the Missouri border, the variant has crisscrossed the state, fueling upticks around Junction City, Wichita and other areas.

“They obviously don't want to have to go back to the same level of severity of illness,” he said.

Could it get as bad as last December, when daily COVID inpatients topped 1,000 and desperate hospitals spent hours calling each other in search of a free bed, only to send critically ill patients hours by ambulance out of state to Omaha or whatever other Midwest city had a free spot that day.

The good news: 80% of the state’s residents 65 years and older got vaccinated.

“We don’t, unfortunately, have high enough vaccination in Kansas or Missouri” to slow the spread, said Amber D’Souza, a professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

“It is scary,” said Duwve, from the state health department.

The school debate.

The ideal, she said, is for school districts to set a threshold

But some school districts might find it difficult to communicate that plan to the public, she said

Apparently, Kansas City doctors think the situation is bad enough to warrant masking up

So far just one major Kansas school district — Kansas City, Kansas — has agreed

Celia Llopis-Jepsen reports on consumer health for the Kansas News Service

The Kansas News Service is a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW and High Plains Public Radio focused on health, the social determinants of health and their connection to public policy.