The Kansas Department of Health and Environment announced Tuesday it would stop contact tracing for COVID-19 at the end of the month because of a lack of cooperation and a surge in new cases.
Kansas medical providers on Friday praised Gov. Laura Kelly for declaring a state of emergency and issuing executive orders to help confront an overwhelming surge in COVID-19 infections.
August Rudisell / The Lawrence Times
Kansas and federal public health officials Thursday expanded eligibility for the Pfizer booster shot to 36,000 children between ages 12-15, and moderately or severely immunocompromised children ages 5-11 can get an additional primary dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
Lawrence Times graphic
Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health has received 210 reports of new COVID-19 cases since Monday, according to the department’s Wednesday update, bringing the total of known active cases to 908.
Amid concerns COVID-19 will worsen as the temperature drops, Kansas hospital leaders are warning of rapidly rising case numbers leading to poor outcomes and limiting bed space.
As former KDHE secretary Lee Norman managed the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, he found himself at the center of a cultural battle between individual rights and the collective good.
Gov. Laura Kelly nominated a health care administrator Monday to fill the role of secretary at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
August Rudisell / The Lawrence Times
Douglas County has hit a grim milestone of 100 deaths from COVID-19, according to Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health’s Monday update.
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A COVID-19 testing program used since August in the Eudora school district aims to reduce quarantines. Students and staff exposed to a positive case can “test out” of quarantine as long as they don’t have symptoms and continue to test negative for the virus.
School districts across the state independently reported hundreds of infections of COVID-19 among students and staff in the first two weeks of school, while the state’s official ledger showed just two small outbreaks.
