Oct 31, 2020

Case count at 640, with 243 in community, deaths up to 18

Posted Oct 31, 2020 9:36 AM

The Reno County overall case count is at 640 as of Friday evening. The death count among Reno County residents is now 18.

The Correctional Facility cluster type has 416 active cases measured by the county's COVID-19 dashboard. The Long Term Care Facility cluster type has 11 cases, but has been responsible for six deaths. There are 19 active clusters in the county.

There are 243 cases in the community at large.

Eighteen people are in the hospital. Ninety-nine total have been hospitalized. Forty-three have been admitted to the ICU and 13 have been intubated. These are Reno County resident numbers regardless of where they are hospitalized.

The community's positive test rate is up to 11.72%, with the overall positive test rate at 17.99%. 19.99% of the population has been tested.

The school gating criteria will remain in the red for the upcoming week. 14-Day Positive Test Rate as of 10/26 is 21.1%. 14-Day New Case Total as of 10/26 is 339.

Depending on the week, 40 to 50% of people who test positive have no idea where they were exposed. In Hutchinson, when measuring by home address, the area extending southwest of the fairgrounds has been an ongoing area of greater concentration of those unknown cases for several months. The area north of 30th from Severance to Monroe has emerged more recently with a greater concentration of positive cases with unknown exposure. South Hutchinson also has a concentrated area of unknown exposures and Buhler and Partridge are also having those issues.

Widespread community testing is how you find those unknown cases before they can continue to spread. The next community testing date is November 3 at the Oz Breezeway on the Kansas State Fairgrounds from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

The county is also encouraging groups to limit gathering sizes even more than the local health order suggests. A Friday release would like to see people voluntarily limit such gatherings to 10.