<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/5/1589025873324.png" alt="Dr. Lee Norman discussed the sterilization during the governor's Friday press conference" />
 <figcaption>Dr. Lee Norman discussed the sterilization during the governor's Friday press conference</figcaption>
 </figure>TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas’ top public health official on Friday encouraged medical personnel to sterilize N95 masks for reuse to preserve their supplies as the state prepared to update the public less often about the virus’ spread.Dr. Lee Norman, the head of the state health department, said it is borrowing massive sterilizing equipment for six months from Battelle, an Ohio-based nonprofit research and development company deploying such equipment across the U.S. Norman said the equipment is based in a state warehouse south of Topeka and can sterilize up to 10,000 masks a day. He hopes that capacity will jump to 18,000 a day.Norman said he wants hospitals, nursing homes, first responders, local health departments and state agencies to send in N95 masks, which have filtration to block 95% of particles, so they can be used up to 20 times. He said the state had recommended that institutions keep a 90-day supply but is now suggesting larger stockpiles against a possible surge in coronavirus cases later.“This a free service,” Norman said during a Statehouse news conference with Gov. Laura Kelly. “We have a shortage of the N95s and will continue to.”The state began gradually reopening its economy this week, with Kelly lifting a stay-at-home order at midnight Sunday. Norman said hospitals have the bed and ventilator capacity to handle a surge of cases but acknowledged that a second wave of the coronavirus could be more intense than the one that began in Kansas in early March.“I think we need to enjoy the summer in a way, because I think what’s coming is likely going to make what we’ve seen not seem that bad,” said Dr. Beth Oller, a family physician in Rooks County in northwest Kansas. “I think we are going to be called to pull back again.”The state health department reported Saturday that the state had 6,751 confirmed or probable cases of coronavirus, up 250 from Friday. It reported an additional five COVID-19-related deaths, total of 157 since early March.A Johns Hopkins University site lists the number of deaths for Kansas as 168, and Norman acknowledged that the number of coronavirus cases is likely higher than the state’s tally because of limited tested early in the state’s outbreak and because people can be infected and show no symptoms.The state began Thursday to include probable cases in its counts. Those have laboratory blood evidence from people with symptoms or people who have been linked to a confirmed case, or they’re cases in which a person shows symptoms but hasn’t been tested after being linked to a confirmed case.For some infected people, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, the virus can cause severe illness or death. But for most people, it causes mild or moderate symptoms that clear up in two to three weeks.Nursing homes have been hit especially hard, with 22 clusters accounting for 540 confirmed or probable coronavirus cases and 85 deaths, or 56% of the state’s reported total.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kcur.org/community/2020-05-07/a-covid-19-hot-spot-in-prairie-village-now-accounts-for-57-known-cases-and-9-death?mc_cid=d355748d5e&amp;mc_eid=45fc700640" target="_blank">KCUR-FM reported</a>&nbsp;that the Brighton Gardens senior living facility in the Kansas City suburb of Prairie Village, Kansas, now accounts for 57 confirmed cases and nine deaths.

Kansas official pushes sterilization of N95 masks for reuse