From the daily media briefing on COVID-19 by The University of Kansas Health System, the number of inpatients being treated in the hospital for COVID-19 has leveled at 34 today. Of those, 13 are in the ICU, up from 11 yesterday. Nine patients are on ventilators, same as yesterday. Several patients have recovered and been discharged and are doing well.

Dr. Steve Stites, chief medical officer at the health system, says it’s clear social distancing is working, as the number of cases is not increasing dramatically here as it is in other areas. He says it will be equally important when deciding when to reopen society, to weigh the human toll with the economic toll the disease is taking. He says when we do begin to reopen society, it won’t be a reopening, but a new opening. He says it will be a world we haven’t known since the last pandemic 100 years ago…different but great.

            Joining the panel by phone were three physicians from our greater Kansas health system. Heather Harris, DO, medical director of the HaysMed campus, Christian Whittington, MD, family medicine doctor from the Pawnee Valley Campus and Mark VanNorden, DO, family practice doctor from the Great Bend Campus.

            All three doctors gave updates on the numbers of COVID-19 patients they’re seeing. They all said they’ve been seeing more and more patients using secure and encrypted telehealth video visits. They mentioned that because the virus came to their smaller communities later than in the Kansas City metro area, they’ve all had more time to prepare, and currently have the right amount of staff and protective equipment. Dr. Whittington from Pawnee Valley said even though they have no active cases, thanks to a local contractor, the hospital was able to increase the number of negative pressure rooms to help treat any potential COVID-19 patients. They all face the same shortage of COVID-19 test kits as everywhere else, and are currently only testing inpatients and those with clear symptoms of the virus.

Dana Hawkinson, MD, medical director of infectious prevention and control at The University of Kansas Health System said of the two, keeping six feet apart is even more important than sheltering at home, and may be the key to how we interact when it comes time to society. He says it’s also difficult to estimate how many people in a community actually have the disease when 80 percent who do will have minimal to no symptoms. He also said, with many more of us now ordering takeout food from our favorite restaurants, it’s not the food we have to worry about but rather the packaging we need to be careful with. He said food itself is not a good environment for a virus.      

Friday, April 17, at 8:00 a.m. is the next daily briefing call and will include U.S. Senator Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, to talk about his recent appointment to the White House COVID-19 Task Force, and to talk about what’s happening with COVID-19 at the federal level. Also joining the panel is Dr. Lee Norman, Secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, to talk about COVID-19 at the state level, including any projection on when the stay-at-home order for Kansas may be lifted.

The feed is now available via TVU grid. The TVU source is UoK_Health and is being made available to all. You will still need to call-in to ask questions.

Telephone dial-in Participants:

Dial: 1-913-588-2222, and enter 50041981# when prompted for the Call ID. Feel free to send questions in advance to medicalnewsnetwork@kumc.edu.