By Rod Zook
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Reno County Health Department is watching COVID cases carefully to see if there will be another spike in positive numbers as the colder weather sets in.
“We’re seeing how those trends are going to affect current active cases that we’re seeing, and then what is behind the scenes,” Reno County Health Department Director Karla Nichols said. “We are in a declining trend and we’re all very happy with that, but we’re also mindful of how things could suddenly change.”
As school started last year, there was a small jump in positive cases to 248. Then the number of positive cases compared with the rate residents were getting COVID began to widen as the number of active cases fell faster than new cases were coming onboard. The active case numbers then turned for the worse and shot up to a high of 1,513 before falling steadily through the rest of the winter and into the summer months.
During the start of school this year, the number of active cases jumped to 651 before starting a decline. At one time, the number of positive cases was quickly falling compared to the rate of new cases. Since the end of October and as we start November, the trend is turning back to a pattern similar to last year. Nichols hopes there have been enough measures taken to prevent a sudden increase in cases.
“We’re hoping that the vaccines in those 65 plus, these booster doses are going to help reduce that trend that we saw last year,” Nichols said. “We would like to think that those booster (shots) and doses will lessen that this Thanksgiving. It’s just too early to know.”
COVID cases in the county jumped by 214 in the past 10 days while the number of people on the active list fell by just 33.
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