The last time Barton County Health Director Karen Winkelman addressed Barton County Commissioners was May 11 when she reported there had been 22 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the county.
Winkelman was back in commission chambers Tuesday to provide an update which showed the county now has 45 positive cases of coronavirus, 33 in the city of Great Bend.
Winkelman says in the past two weeks, the number of people tested for the virus has gone up. As of Tuesday, over 600 individuals had been tested for COVID-19.
“With the numbers going up we continue to be very active in the contact investigations,” Winkelman said. “We have done testing on our drive-thru days and have averaged between three and 10 tests on those Tuesdays and Wednesdays by appointment only.”
On May 11, six confirmed cases had been reported at a long term care facility in Great Bend. Additional testing has taken place since then and that number has now grown to seven.
“KDHE asked us to do another round of cohort testing at the facility of both employees and residents,” Winkelman said. “We still have two pending results and one additional positive case of COVID-19 in a resident.”
With 45 confirmed cases, Barton County now has the 15th highest number of coronavirus cases in Kansas out of 105 counties.
New statewide numbers will be released on Wednesday.