Riley County health officials reported 39 new positive COVID-19 cases Wednesday along with 41 added to the recovered list.
Just one COVID positive patient is receiving care at Ascension Via Christi. Active cases totaled 71 with just over 2,000 now recovered from the virus and 11 deaths.
The health department has now received all of the results from the 277 people who took advantage of free COVID testing last week in Manhattan. A total of 15 were positive. Additional free testing events are being planned in November and December.
The health department is currently monitoring eight active outbreaks in Riley County.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) is reporting 1,637 cases for Riley County. That total does not reflect the most recent cases. KDHE has hired 25 new employees to help get the backlogged data updated in the statewide electronic disease surveillance system, EpiTrax. Several weeks ago, the Riley County Health Department (RCHD) began to report data that has been gathered directly from local healthcare providers, then reconcile information from KDHE as it is received. That practice will continue in order to ensure that local case counts are as accurate and up-to-date as possible.
The input of new data from KDHE, which represents positive and negative test results for previous weeks, will continue to impact percent positive information reported for Riley County.
Percent positive ratios are calculated according to the week that tests were administered, not the week in which results were received. As KDHE catches up with the backlog of cases, information about patient test results from as far back as June is being added to the system.
