Following is the Saline County COVID-19 update for Friday.
Due to the recent increase of new COVID-19 cases in Saline County and rise in the number of variants sequenced, the Saline County Health Department will return to reporting local COVID-19 data three times per week. Vaccination statistics are updated each Wednesday, while case numbers will be shared each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
At least 21,387 people have been vaccinated in Saline County. This accounts for approximately 39.4 percent of the total population and an increase of just .4 percent over the previous week. We are aware of a reporting issue with federal providers like CVS, the VA, and others who are not reporting their vaccination numbers at the state level. We are awaiting a fix on the federal level.
One additional death due to COVID-19 has been reported thus far in July. Salina Regional Health Center reported today that five people require hospitalization for COVID-19. While medical privacy laws prevent the release of identifying information, teens and young adults account for the bulk of the new and active cases in the county, while most of the people requiring hospitalization are in their 40s, 50s, or 60s.
In fact, the Saline County Health officer reports that since the beginning of June, just four people over the age of 70 have tested positive for the virus.
A variant of COVID-19 has been detected in 27 of the 152 specimens the Kansas Department of Health and Environment has sequenced from Saline County. A deeper analysis of this information can be found on the KDHE Coronavirus website.