Latest COVID surge begins to ebb
Staff writer
Much as it did a year ago, the county’s surge in COVID-19 cases has begun ebbing with the move from January into February.
A total of 82 county residents were listed Monday as being under isolation orders with active cases of the disease. That’s half the number of active cases from a week earlier.
Revised numbers of new cases by date of symptom onset indicate a gradual weakening of the pandemic, which still rises above last year’s previous record-high totals.
Week ending 2021 2022
Jan. 2 77 79
Jan. 9 66 89
Jan. 16 62 180
Jan. 23 48 160
Jan. 30 29 69
Feb. 7 25 27
Results for the latest week are subject to upward revision as final reports begin coming in.
In data most recently updated Feb. 2, Marion County had five locations included on the Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s list of COVID “clusters” statewide:
- Marion schools — 39 cases in the 14 days that ended Jan. 28.
- Hillsboro schools — 13 cases in the 14 days that ended Jan. 27.
- Goessel schools — 10 cases in the 14 days that ended Jan. 26.
- Salem Home, Hillsboro — 10 cases in the 14 days that ended Jan. 23.
- Westview Manor, Peabody —with six cases in the 14 days that ended Jan. 31.
The county continues to have an overall infection rate nearly two points above the state average.
As of Monday, 27.27% of Marion County residents had come down with verified cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began. Statewide, the percentage was 25.48%.
Health officials warn that a more contagious version of the Omicron variant has yet to make its way to Kansas, but if last year’s experience is a pattern, totals of new COVID cases should decline steadily between now and July, with only a brief and small upswing around the first of May.