Following is the McPherson County Health Department COVID-19 report for Thursday.
McPherson County is experiencing extremely high infection rates. McPherson County Health Department (MCHD) strongly urges all county residents 2 years of age and above to mask up. We also strongly urge all county residents 5 years of age and above to get vaccinated. If you completed a COVID-19 vaccine series prior to July 2021, you are likely due for a booster dose. Vaccination remains to be our best tool to prevent severe illness, hospitalization and death. Our local hospitals, and surrounding hospitals we may normally transfer patients to, are at maximum capacity and response.
Please help our healthcare workers and our community by masking up, getting vaccinated and staying home if you’re ill.
In December 2021, McPherson County reported 596 cases of COVID-19. So far in the first 13 days of January 2022, we have reported 672 cases of COVID-19. This is an all-time high that will likely get worse before it gets better. With over 500 active cases of COVID-19 in our community at the time of this release, MCHD begs you to take appropriate precautions.
Our schools, businesses and healthcare system depend on each person to do their part.
As of this release, there are 80 confirmed variant cases out of 95 tested specimens. At this time, these identified variants do not require additional quarantine or isolation precautions outside of what is already done for non-variant cases. More information regarding COVID-19 variants can be found at https://www.who.int/.../tracking-SARS-CoV-2-variants/.
●Variant B.1.1.7 (Alpha): 6
●Variant B.1.617.2 (Delta): 28
●Variant AY.2 (Delta): 17
●Variant AY.3 (Delta): 16
●Variant AY.4 (Delta): 10
●Variant AY.7 (Delta): 1
●Variant BA.1 (Omicron): 2
KDHE and MCHD continue to mandate a 10-day quarantine for Kansans. This quarantine does not apply if you have been fully vaccinated for at least 2 weeks and are asymptomatic. The travel and exposure related quarantine list can be found at https://www.coronavirus.kdheks.gov/175/Travel-Exposure-Related-Isolation-Quaran.
COVID-19 data in McPherson County can be found on the home page of mcphersoncountyks.us, under “McPherson County COVID-19 Dashboard.” This data will continue to be updated Tuesdays and Thursdays of each week.