Local health officials are watching COVID-19 numbers this week as an evaluation of a recent health order in response to rising case numbers of late.
Riley County Health Department Director Julie Gibbs update the public on the latest pandemic information via Facebook Live Wednesday. Wednesday, she reported 9 new active COVID-19 cases and 16 new recoveries. Overall, 132 cases are active — 1 in the hospital — 107 have recovered, 3 deaths have been reported and a total of 242 positives have been confirmed.
“Through our contact tracing, we are still seeing quite a few of our cases linking back to the bars,” Gibbs says.
Aggieville as a whole, in addition to 785 Bar and Rock A Belly Bar and Deli, has been declared an outbreak zone by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. Specific numbers linked to the district could not be provided during the live update, but Gibbs says they are keeping a tally of cases linked to specific businesses.
Previously, officials have stated 5 cases linked to a specific person, time or location can be declared an outbreak, but Emergency Preparedness Coordinator Andrew Adams says reaching the determination can be complicated. At this time, no new EMS workers have come back positive with the novel coronavirus, and KDHE has not categorized the 7 positive employees there as an outbreak.
More than 50 percent of patients continue to be in the 18 to 24 age range and many are experiencing gastrointestinal symptoms.
Emergency Preparedness Coordinator Andrew Adams also encourages residents to get back to previously taken precautions such as staying home as much as possible, physical distancing and avoiding crowds — as well as wearing masks.
“We know that those worked, we know that those helped slow the spread,” says Adams. “I think that we need to know we all play that part in doing those activities again to make sure we don’t see more spikes of 100 cases a week, whatever it might be.”
If you have symptoms of COVID-19, call the screening line at 785-323-6400 Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. or email questions to rileycountycovid19@gmail.com
