WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW)-Although COVID-19 is no longer making headlines like it once did, he hasn’t disappeared. And on Wednesday, Kansas health officials reported a sad milestone: The state’s COVID-19 death toll passed 10,000.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) said 10,029 deaths in Kansas have been linked to the coronavirus since the pandemic began three years ago.
While that’s an increase of 34 from last week’s report, it doesn’t mean that 34 people have died in the past week. The KDHE shows four deaths in the past seven days, with 16 deaths in February. Because the KDHE often reviews death certificates, other deaths could have come from months or years prior to the pandemic.
Deaths have slowed. It took five and a half months to go from 9,000 to 10,000, compared to the start of the pandemic, when the death toll sometimes increased by a thousand in just one month.
MonthKansas COVID-19 Death TollOctober 20201.000December 20202.000January 20213.000February 20214.000May 20215.000September 20216.000December 20217.000March 20228.000August 20229.000February 202020310 Department of Health
During an audit of Kansas hospitals on Tuesday, the KDHE learned there are 149 patients hospitalized with COVID-19. That’s down two from last week.
- 136 of the patients are adults
- 13 are children
- 27 of the patients are in intensive care
The KDHE reports that 2,057 Kansans have tested positive for the coronavirus in the past seven days. The state says the seven-day average of new cases is 277.
Some of the cases are tested for variants. The KDHE says 30 recent cases have returned as the omicron variant; one was the BA.4/BA.5 subvariant; 14 were subvariant BQ; and 14 were the XBB.1.5 subvariant.
Vaccinations against COVID-19 have slowed down. In the past week:
- 310 Kansans received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine
- 575 received a second dose
- 1,827 received a booster dose
The percentage of Kansan who received at least one dose is 65.4%, while 57.5% have completed a series of vaccines.
