The number of active cases isn’t increasing a lot, but it’s still an increase — and as a result, it has officials with Lyon County Public Health concerned about the local COVID-19 tracking metrics.
On KVOE’s Newsmaker segment Tuesday, Emergency Preparedness Director Jennifer Millbern said the recent increase from 19 active cases Thursday to 27 Monday bears watching.
Millbern is also concerned about an ongoing, rapid increase in the number of close contacts for COVID-19 patients through social gatherings, sports tournaments, mass gatherings and workplace interactions — meaning concerns about contact tracing have been magnified after the Legislature took out the ability for investigating third-party contacts last month.
Millbern echoed recent comments from Governor Laura Kelly and Kansas Health Secretary Lee Norman that no clusters have developed in close-contact businesses like hair salons, beauty salons and barbershops.
Millbern is watching the next two to three incubation periods, or into mid-August, for possible caseload increases from the Fourth of July weekend. She’s watching for two potential spikes — one in the number of overall and active cases over the next two weeks and another in the number of hospitalizations another two to four weeks out.
More information about coronavirus through Lyon County Public Health is available online at www.publichealth.lyoncounty.org.
