Data released today by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment shows the 7-day moving average of new COVID cases is just 1.3% per day, and up from 1.0% a week ago.
A small increase isn’t surprising given that the rate of increase is so low; the rate of increase has been below 2% since May 19. This is the second consecutive week with a small increase, but the KDHE site doesn’t indicate whether the increase is due to additional testing, or how many are asymptomatic versus serious cases.
There are still 13 counties with no reported or suspected COVID cases, and another 19 counties have three or fewer.
Less than one-half of one percent (0.43%) of the Kansas population has or is suspected to be infected with COVID-19. The highest infection rates (between 4% and 5.7%) are the southwest Kansas meatpacking triangle of Finney, Ford, and Seward counties. But fortunately, the meatpacking clusters tracked by KDHE have very low mortality rates. With just 16 deaths among more than 3,000 cases, the mortality rate is just 0.5%.
KDHE has identified 187 clusters that account for 48% of all the cases and 74% of all the 
deaths in Kansas. Long-term care facilities have the highest mortality rate at 16.6%, representing 146 of the state’s 259 deaths.
Four correctional facility clusters account for a little over 1,000 cases – 8% of the state’s total – but with just seven deaths, the mortality rate is 0.7%.
There are 67 deaths and 6,432 cases reported outside of the clusters, for a mortality rate of 1.0%.
KSDE updates the data on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
