By AMY RICKER
Great Bend Post
Seven months ago, Barton County received its first official case of COVID-19 on March 30, 2020. As of Oct. 19, the Barton County Health Department has investigated a total of 695 confirmed cases of the virus. There have also been seven deaths attributed to COVID-19 with more deaths pending physician confirmation reported to the Office of Vital Statistics.
At the Barton County Commissioners Board meeting, Public Health Director, Karen Winkleman says the State of Kansas provides a positivity rate for Barton County and that rate is used in a variety of ways.
“It is defined as the number of positive cases, PCR positive in a week’s timeframe. That information is out there, available to the public on the KDHE website. It’s based on laboratory test dates and it’s intended to be used as a guideline for different entities.”
Winkleman says that data is used by long-term-care facilities that are mandated by CMS to determine how often they have to test staff and residents. Schools and communities also use this information for guidance at the rates go up and down to make decisions.
“I pulled just the last three that were available and in Barton County on Sept. 27, we were at 15.49% positivity. In Kansas, it was 6.37%. A week later we were at 14.97% so that went down slightly and the state went up slightly, 7.51%. On the Oct. 11, which was a week ago, Barton County was at 18.2% and the state of Kansas is at 8.49%.”
Winkleman said that the last local health update from the Kansas Health Department that she participated in was last Friday and there were some minimal indications that there may be some changes in the recommendations of quarantine guidelines this week.