Updated 2:09 p.m.
The City-Cowley County Health Department confirmed a second COVID-19 death in Cowley County.
Tuesday afternoon, the health department identified the deceased as a 34-year-old Hispanic-Latino male. The press release from the health department said he tested positive last week and developed increasingly significant symptoms that resulted in an urgent need for care by first responders.
The man was taken for medical help but did not survive. He died Friday.
Overall, Cowley County now totals 118 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began and 37 cases are active — an increase of 17 since Friday. Recoveries now number 79.
An Ark City man who tested positive April 1 died a week later and was for some time the only death in the county connected to the virus.
So far, 2,299 people have been tested in the county since a national emergency proclamation was issued by the White House on March 13.
Cowley County has a population of 34,908 people as of July 2019, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The health department said Tuesday that cases have been on in the increase in Cowley County.
Contact tracing and disease investigation indicates that the spread of the virus continues to be communal in nature and is being passed through person to person close contact. The health department said 20 cases were attributed to intimate spread within a small number of family units where multiple family members have taken ill.
The testing week of July 13-17 was more active than normal and more than 130 people were testing in that 5-day span. Of those tests, 30 were positive for the virus and the health department says there have been 47 new cases for the month of July alone.
(Table courtesy the City-Cowley County Health Department)
The health department said data indicates that there is a significantly higher incidence of illness in the Ark City vicinity when compared to other communities in the county. This is attributed to the perceived number of multigenerational or extended families within one house in the community.
Pathways to infection continue to indicate, that in family unit contagion, a specific person is exposed through employment or social activity which is then spread to other family or household members. The results of these exposures are multiple cases rapidly discovered.
Some of the ongoing cases in the community still tie to the late May outbreak attributed to social activity and the rapid spread to the local employee workforce. The health department said that outbreak spread systemically to numerous people in the county and will continue to do so.
The health department has also recorded isolated cases where sports or social activity have been the exposure pathway.
Players that are on traveling teams for various sports have taken ill and required testing. These teams are often made of regionally based players from multiple communities which exacerbates exposure.
Other cases are connected to people who have engaged in close contact social activities in other communities, such as going to nightclubs or parties where large groups have gathered. None of the individuals that have taken ill have reported the use of masks, social distancing or personal protective hygiene, rather most thought that the threat of illness was exaggerated or that they would not be exposed.
“It is human nature to desire a rapid return to normal,” Cowley County Public Health Officer Thomas Langer wrote in the department’s press release Tuesday. “However, the virus remains active in our community. Please do not take risks that are unnecessary. If you feel ill, stay home do not continue to go to work or interact in the community, (i.e. shopping, social interactions) and spread the virus to others.
“In order to avoid contracting this virus consider every person you come in contact with as potentially being ill. Observe appropriate social distance, wear a mask when in areas where people are gathered and wash and sanitize your hands often. If you develop symptoms of illness contact the Health Department and get tested.”
According to Monday’s report from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, 23,334 cases have been confirmed across the state since the pandemic began, along with 1,497 hospitalizations, 307 deaths and 238,197 negative test results.
Sedgwick County is listed with 3,162 cases, Butler County with 139 cases and Sumner County with 72.
Kay County, Oklahoma, has now totaled 147 cases so far and deaths have risen to nine. Overall, the state of Oklahoma has recorded 25,433 cases and 452 deaths according to the latest data.
