Data from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment shows the COVID survival rate reached a new high of 98.9% as of November 11. That’s a significant 
improvement over time. Early in the pandemic on April 20, the survival rate was 94.2%; it improved to 98.1% by July 6 and has been steadily improving since then.
The survival rate for kids aged 0-17 is 100%; adults aged 18-64 survive at a rate of 99.8% and the rate for adults 65-84 is 95%. The survival rate for adults over the age of 85 is 84.6%.
About 46% of the 1,215 deaths attributed to COVID have occurred in nursing homes. The survival rate outside of nursing homes is 99.4% for all ages.
The COVID demographics and many other charts and tables are in the COVID Information Center published by Kansas Policy Institute; KPI owns the Sentinel.
Counties with mask mandates have higher case growth
Kansas Governor Laura Kelly and some local health officials continue to push for more mask mandates even though the data from KDHE continues to show higher case growth in the counties that already have mandates.
Twenty-five of the state’s 105 counties adopted the governor’s mask mandate that went into effect on July 2. Since June 29, those counties collectively have had a 914% increase in COVID cases, while the 80 counties that rejected the mask mandate have seen cases increase by 423%.
Last month, the Sentinel exposed an attempt by researchers at the University of Kansas to justify mask mandates by understating case growth in the counties with mandates. The Lawrence Journal-World, the Kansas City Star, the Wichita Eagle, and the Kansas Reflector ran news stories touting the research and they have declined to run corrections after the Sentinel showed them how they’d been duped by the KU researchers.
The KU report may have been an attempt to rehabilitate the efficacy of mask mandates after the Sentinel caught KDHE Secretary Dr. Lee Norman trying to mislead with his own fabricated data. Even the Wall Street Journal said KDHE fudged the data.
