County sees dramatic increase in COVID cases
New cases seen at Iowa Park Healthcare Center; Hospitalizations on the rise BY KARI COLLINS kcollins@iowaparkleader.com “Over the last week we have seen a drastic and concerning increase of COVID-19 cases,” said Wichita County Health Director Lou Kreidler Monday during a press conference at United Regional Health Care Center. “This past Friday our positivity rate was the highest rate yet at 39 percent.”
Kreidler is speaking of the alarming rise of active COVID-19 cases in Wichita County, with a record 565 new cases reported in the seven-day period through Tuesday afternoon. This brings the total number of active cases in the county to 1,130 as of Tuesday evening.
In addition, the record number of hospitalizations and infections have United Regional Healthcare’s COVID care units approaching capacity.
As of Tuesday, 54 Wichita County residents were hospitalized with COVID-19, with 27 of those reported to be in critical condition.
A total of 229 recoveries were recorded in the last week as well.
Phyllis Cowling, president and CEO of United Regional Health Care System addressed the media during Monday’s press conference, saying
“We are currently at the highest level of COVID patients at any point during the last seven months, and they are sick. Given our current staff availability, we estimate that we would max out at about 250 patients. Anything above that is going to cause strain on our system in the short term, and may actually be unsustainable in the long term.” “We now have roughly 65 employees who are home under COVID diagnosis or quarantine,” Cowling continued. “ So we will be limited by our staff availability before we are limited by our physical bed availability. And as community transmission goes up, our hospital staff increasingly get exposed and become COVID positive or quarantined.”
Wichita County has three hospitals that currently have COVID patients: URHCS, Electra Hospital and Kell West Regional Hospital.
Iowa Park Healthcare Center
Tuesday, an outbreak at Iowa Park Health Center was reported, with six residents and two employees testing positive.
Marcia Jacobi, Director of the Iowa Park Healthcare Center, said two employees tested postive on site on Monday, and were given a confirmation test because they were both asymptomatic. “After those came in positive, every resident in the facility was tested,” Jacobi said. “Out of 21 residents, six tested positive. “
One resident who tested positive was sent to United Regional hospital, and the other five, who were mostly asymptomatic, were sent to a sister facility in Lockney to be cared for in a dedicated COVID unit.
Jacobi also noted that this is the first time that the facility has had any resident or employee test positive throughout the pandemic.
“We are testing the patients every day at this point,” she said
Jacobi said the local center has a COVID unit which under normal circumstances would have been activated, but because of the two employee positive cases and two more under quarantine from contact they could not open the local unit while meeting state staffing requirements.
“We have a covid unit in Iowa Park, which we would normally activate and keep residents in house. Because we’re short four people, we cannot open our COVID unit with dedicated staff. We couldn’t properly meet the state standards for a COVID unit,” Jacobi added.
Health Director Lou Kreidler confirmed Wednesday that many nursing homes in our area are having an increase in COVID cases.
Iowa Park CISD
This week the Iowa Park CISD reported two infections at the Iowa Park High School campus, one student and one teacher. Both cases were classified as minimal risk to the campus. Another staff infection was reported at Bradford Elementary Tuesday, but was classified as no risk to the campus as the employee had not been on site while symptomatic.
During Monday’s press conference, both Kreidler and Cowling urged Wichita County residents to take this pandemic seriously.
Cowling ended the press conference saying, “On behalf of our entire organization, I’m asking for your help. Please comply with masking and social distancing. Please be hyper-vigilant. I know everyone is COVID-fatigued but we have a shared responsibility to each other. Otherwise our local health resources are going to be strained, potentially overwhelmed. And that affects all of us, COVID and non-COVID alike.”
In an interview Tuesday, Kreidler said, “We understand that people are tired of COVID. We understand people don’t want to wear masks. We are at a critical juncture in our community and if we don’t start taking personal responsibility for ourself and the decisions that we make, we’re not going to be in a place were we want our community to be.”
As of last Friday evening, the health unit reported that the Iowa Park zip code had 40 active cases, or 4.15 percent of those in the county. The health unit releases totals by zip code each Friday, and the Iowa Park Leader posts the results each week to social media so local residents can be informed more quickly.
As of Tuesday evening, a total of 28,245 Wichita County residents had been tested for COVID-19, with 3,134 of those positive since March 18. Of those, 1,974 have recovered. The number of tests pending was 756 as of Tuesday evening.
The latest information on hospitalizations released by the WFWC Public Health District include:
Hospitalizations
Case 1,876: 50 - 59, stable
Case 1,955: 70 - 79, stable
Case 1,985: 60 - 69, stable
Case 2,085: 60 - 69, critical
Case 2,139: 70 - 79, critical
Case 2,159: 60 - 69, critical
Case 2,227: 80+, stable
Case 2,283: 70 - 79, critical
Case 2,310: 80+, critical
Case 2,366: 80+, stable
Case 2,367: 60 - 69, stable
Case 2,371: 60 - 69, critical
Case 2,379: 70 - 79, critical
Case 2,380: 70 - 79, critical
Case 2,406: 80+, critical
Case 2,411: 30 - 39, critical
Case 2,412: 70 - 79, stable
Case 2,426: 30 - 39, stable
Case 2,433: 80+, critical
Case 2,460: 60 - 69, critical
Case 2,462: 60 - 69, stable
Case 2,463: 30 - 39, critical
Case 2,470: 70 - 79, critical
Case 2,526: 70 - 79, stable
Case 2,544: 60 - 69, critical
Case 2,545: 60 - 69, critical
Case 2,549: 30 - 39, stable
Case 2,553: 30 - 39, stable
Case 2,581: 80+, stable
Case 2,599: 70 - 79, critical
Case 2,689: 70 - 79, critical
Case 2,691: 60 - 69, critical
Case 2,735: 60 - 69, stable
Case 2,736: 60 - 69, critical
Case 2,749: 80+, critical
Case 2,763: 50 - 59, stable
Case 2,802: 70 - 79, critical
Case 2,894: 50 - 59, stable
Case 2,896: 20 - 29, critical
Case 2,902: 60 - 69, critical
Case 2,911: 60 - 69, stable
Case 2,935: 60 - 69, stable
Case 2,943: 60 - 69, stable
Case 2,944: 60 - 69, stable
Case 2,945: 70 - 79, stable
Case 2,984: 50 - 59, stable
Case 2,985: 80+, stable
Case 3,004: 60 - 69, stable
Case 3,005: 80+, stable
Case 3,012: 60 - 69, stable
Case 3,021: 70 - 79, critical
Case 3,064: 60 - 69, critical
Case 3,081: 70 - 79, stable
Case 3,082: 70 - 79, critical
As a reminder the Health District COVID hotline is 940-761-7909. The hotline hours are Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm. Please use the hotline for all COVID related questions.
