Following is the Saline County Health Department COVID-19 update for Friday.
During the month of October, 600 cases of COVID-19 were reported to the Saline County Health Department. Of those cases, 489 were unvaccinated, accounting for 81.5 percent of the total cases.
During the month of October, 15 residents of Saline County lost their lives to COVID-19. In the same month, Salina Regional Health Center reported nine in-hospital deaths due to COVID-19.
In a hospital setting, the process of determining a person's cause of death is fairly simple. Outside of the hospital, the Saline County Health Officer and County Coroner use all the facts available to determine if a death is due to COVID. The deceased whose deaths are due to accidents or other issues unrelated to COVID may be tracked as positive cases for the purpose of contact tracing, but not included in death totals.
The Salina Regional Health Center reports all in-hospital deaths due to COVID, including those of people who lived outside of Saline County at the time of their death. While non-resident deaths are not reflected in the information released from the Saline County Health Department, it is important to note, resources at the hospital are impacted by every patient.
According to the Salina Regional Health Center, 50 people were admitted to the hospital for symptoms related to COVID-19. Of these, 36 patients were unvaccinated and 14 were vaccinated.
This information does not include people who were transported to other hospitals due to bed or staff shortages at Salina Regional Health Center. Typically, juvenile cases of COVID are referred to Children's Mercy in Kansas City, or other children's hospitals.
An additional resident of Saline County has lost their life to COVID-19 since our last update on Wednesday, marking the 165th death in our community from this virus.
There have been 54 new cases of COVID-19 reported since our last update, and the Saline County Health Department is currently monitoring 432 patients who are currently dealing with issues related to COVID-19.
In total, 8716 individual cases of COVID-19 have been reported to the Health Department, and at least 8119 people have recovered after testing positive for the virus.
Salina Regional Health Center reports that 14 patients require hospitalization related to COVID-19.