Aggressive testing of healthy Kansans key to stopping spread
TOPEKA, Kan. (KSNT) – Mandatory weekly testing at colleges, more restrictions on restaurants and bars and aggressive testing of those without symptoms are needed to reduce the spread of the coronavirus in Kansas, according to this week’s confidential report prepared by the White House Coronavirus Taskforce and obtained by ABC News.
Kansas statistics from the report:
- 5th highest positivity rate in the country, a number that’s growing (21.3 percent this week, up 1.2 percent from last week)
- New weekly cases have stabilized
- 12th highest in the country for new cases per 100,000 people
- State seeing 563 new cases a week per 100,000 people, compared to the national average of 385
The task force said the positivity rate is high, primarily because those with symptoms are being diagnosed and there was a 26 percent reduction in the number of tests given, compared to the week before. It recommends “aggressive testing to find the asymptomatic individuals responsible for the majority of infections spread.”
Additional recommendations include:
- No indoor gatherings outside of immediate households
- Mandatory weekly testing at colleges
- Reducing capacity in restaurants to 25 percent or less
- Closing bars or limiting the hours they can operate
- Active testing in K-12 schools for teachers and students where cases are increasing
- Pausing extracurricular school activities, including sports (while athletics are not transmission risks, the transmission is occurring in the activities surrounding athletics)
The task force report, which is prepared for each state government, said it will be late spring before the spread of the disease is substantially reduced. While new hospitalizations have dropped by 13 percent in Kansas recently, the group fears numbers will go up as fewer efforts are being taken to reduce the spread.
“There are still very high virus levels across the state,” the report said. “Activities that were safe in the summer are not safe now.”
In the latest reported numbers, the report said 87 percent of counties in Kansas have high levels of community transmission. Nineteen percent of nursing homes have had a new death.
