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Two Dillons employees in Manhattan test positive for COVID-19
MANHATTAN, Kan. (WIBW) -- Two employees at the Sarber Lane Dillons in Manhattan have tested positive for COVID-19.
According to a Dillon’s spokesperson, the employees are from Geary County, but work at the store in Manhattan.
“We are supporting our associates with emergency paid leaves and share our best for quick recoveries. Upon learning of this case, we followed all sanitation and cleaning procedures as recommended by the CDC, communicated with, and supported our store team. We will continue to follow guidance from local, state and federal agencies, including the CDC and other health organizations,” said Sheila Lowrie.
Dillon’s listed the actions taken:
- Completing a deep cleaning and sanitation of the store.
- Enhanced our daily sanitation practices, including increased frequency of cleaning commonly used areas such as cashier stations, self-checkouts, credit card terminals, food service counters, carts, and hand baskets.
- Provided masks and gloves to our associates to wear at work
- Established hand-washing rotation for front-end associates to allow for an opportunity to wash hands and rehydrate. Hand sanitizer continues to be available and should be used in accordance to CDC guidelines.
- Installed plexiglass partitions at check lanes, pharmacy and customer service locations to further limit close interpersonal contact between associates and customers during this time.
- Added floor decals and signage to promote safe physical distancing.
- Adopted limits to the number of customers entering our stores at one time
- Reduced store operations hours to allow for associates to rest, clean, and stock the stores. Additionally, designated hours for seniors and higher-risk customer have been implemented.
Kansas City (MO) area discusses extending COVID-19 shutdown up to 3 more weeks, mayor says
Discussions are underway about extending the area’s stay at home orders to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said Monday.
In rural Kansas, agriculture and meat processing continue despite COVID-19 risks
Only eight souls live on the square-mile section where Jeff Hatfield farms south of Wichita: him, his wife, daughter, son-in-law, three grandchildren and a neighbor.
The coronavirus pandemic still managed to find him.
Not, thankfully, in the form of sickness. For him, the virus’s toll is the damage to his business.
“It’s hurt it tremendously,” he said on a recent morning phone call while driving a tractor back from feedinghis 120 head of cattle on the farm near Belle Plaine.
“Agriculture definitely hasn’t been spared anything from our economy being down,” Hatfield said. “It’s been hit quite drastically.”
In the early weeks of the outbreak,it appeared as if rural areas might ride out the pandemic relatively unscathed. Officially, many of the state’s rural counties still show no or very few cases.
But the growing realization is that not even the farmers, ranchers and other agricultural producers who feed America will escape the economic trauma sweeping the country. Still, they’re hopeful the critical nature of food production will help them through the worst of it.
Nearly 50 of Kansas’s 105 counties still have no confirmed cases more than a month after the state’s first case. These counties are largely rural and dominated by agriculture.
Interviews with more than a dozen Kansas farmers, ranchers, health officials and community leaders show how for many in the state’s rural areas, work continues unabated even as urban areas hunker down. While those living in rural Kansas say they’re taking precautions to limit the spread of the deadly virus, the essential work of agriculture must go on despite the risk. PLANT WORKERS AT RISK
In food processing, the risks for workers are especially acute. An outbreak in a packed plant could cause painful disruptions and stretch an already-strained rural health care system.
Thousands of people continue to process cattle everyday at the Tyson Foods plant at Holcomb near Garden City. An outbreak would represent a nightmare scenario – rapidly spreading the contagion while disrupting a plant that processes about 5 percent of all American beef on any given day. The company operates other plants in Kansas and Missouri as well.
Joe Gonzales, president of the local chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens, knows several people who work at the plant.
“They’re worried that some people might have it and aren’t saying nothing or they don’t have a temperature – you never know,” he said.
Tyson spokeswoman Liz Croston declined to say whether anyone at the Holcomb plant has tested positive. Workers at all facilities – including Holcomb – have their temperature taken before they enter plants, she said.
The company is working to secure face coverings and plants have increased the distance between workers, she said. Additionally, the time between shifts has been lengthened to reduce worker interaction and outdoor seating has been provided to give employees more space during breaks.
“If there is a confirmed case at one of our locations, as part of our protocol and in collaboration with health officials, we notify anyone who has been in close contact with the person and instruct them to go home and self-quarantine,” Croston said in an email. “We also inform team members who have not been exposed and provide information to our supervisors so they can help answer questions.”
Gov. Laura Kelly said her administration has been in touch with both Tyson and Cargill, which processes beef in Dodge City. Both companies have implemented procedures to make plants safer while maintaining production.
“I talked with the CEO of Tyson the other day and they are having half the number of people come in to the facility at any given time, so they’re essentially doing two shifts,” Kelly said Friday at a news conference.
Outbreaks have already struck meat plants throughout the country, and some employees have died. More than 80 workers at a Smithfield Foods plant in South Dakota have tested positive, forcing the facility to temporarily close. Workers have tested positive at plants in Iowa, Georgia and other states. A Tyson plant in Iowa was also closed.
Kansas already got a taste of what a large-scale disruption in a meat plant would look like when a fire last fall temporarily shuttered Tyson at Holcomb.. The event affected beef prices nationally and sent ranchers scrambling to find other places to send their cattle.
The United States has very little slack in its cattle processing capacity, said Matt Teagarden, CEO of the Kansas Livestock Association. Any disruption quickly filters down to farmers and ranchers, who are even now sending cattle to auctions every day.
“Those cattle that should have been harvested this week don’t get harvested until next week. Next week’s cattle gets delayed, so you just push cattle out, so that has a downward effect on the cattle market,” Teagarden said. “So it makes this situation even worse from a cattle producer perspective.”
Hatfield’s up against a ticking clock. He’s hoping his grass greens up before he runs out of feed for his cattle and is forced to begin selling.
He wants to take some of his older cattle to market, “but with the market being the way it is, I’m trying to hold off on that as long as I can.” ‘IT’S KIND OF DIFFERENT FOR US’
Forty-one U.S. senators – including Jerry Moran of Kansas and Josh Hawley of Missouri – last week sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue asking him to provide relief to farmers. They wrote that cattle producers last week experienced “excessive price losses” creating “cash flow challenges as spring planting season quickly approaches.”
President Donald ***** tweeted Thursday that he had instructed Perdue to expedite help for farmers.
“I expect Secretary Purdue to use all of the funds and authorities at his disposal to make sure that our food supply is stable, strong, and safe,” ***** tweeted without elaborating.
While rural Kansas is expected to take a beating economically, the losses will likely end up smaller than in urban areas. Jeremy Hill, director of the Center for Economic Development and Business Research at Wichita State University, said employment could fall by 27 percent in Kansas, and 35 percent in Wichita. But the decline is projected at less than 20 percent in rural areas.
“I think the rest of the state is going to fare much better than the bigger urban areas,” Hill said.
Lona DuVall, president and CEO of the Finney County Economic Development Corporation, which encompasses Garden City, said the county has a production-based economy centered not only on food but also on trucking and that much of the business that occurs is “essential.” That’s helping the county withstand the economic pressure.
“What we maybe sometimes think of as an urban-rural divide is actually more of a difference between a production economy and a service economy,” DuVall said.
Eighty-eight people filed unemployment claims in Finney County during the week ending April 4. While the number is dozens more than most western counties, it’s still a far cry from urban areas where thousands are being laid off and furloughed.
In Greely County, bordering Colorado, not a single new unemployment claim was filed between March 29 and April 4. In neighboring Wallace County, just one claim was filed.
Both counties have no reported cases of coronavirus.
Aften Gardner, an administrator for the Wallace County Health Department, said the county has only had to shut down its salon. Most of the businesses in town center on agriculture – meaning they’re essential under Gov. Laura Kelly’s statewide stay-at-home order.
“It’s kind of different for us,” Gardner said. “We’re kind of rural and ag-based.”
People have been avoiding going out, Gardner said, particularly those who are high-risk for COVID-19. Businesses have switched to curbside and delivery methods.
The county hasn’t had a confirmed case of the new coronavirus yet. Gardner said if it enters the county, officials would roll out more restrictions, like roping off playgrounds.
Kansas Rep. Russ Jennings represents a swath of western Kansas extending from Garden City to the Colorado border. He said his impression is that people are taking the stay-at-home order seriously.
The Lakin Republican said a local parts store was taking order by phone.
“They’re basically met at the door and handed their stuff, they’re not even letting people inside the building,” he said.
Despite few confirmed cases, Jennings suggested rural areas are still taking the threat of the virus seriously in part because small community hospitals are unlikely to have equipment found in larger hospitals in places like Garden City.
If you have to be hospitalized, you’re likely going somewhere away from your hometown, Jennings said. And, he says, residents in the communities he represents tend to be older, and more at risk if they catch the virus.
Former Gov. Jeff Colyer, a physician, said some rural hospitals in Kansas have already experienced an overflow of patients.
“You’re going to have little tiny hot spots, but because it’s 25 or 100 people at a time, it doesn’t make the front page,” Colyer said. “But believe me, it’s devastating for these communities. Ten percent of the community could be affected and sick at the same time.”
John McRae, president of Iola Industries in Allen County, said he hasn’t been able to visit his grandchildren in Olathe and Des Moines because of the pandemic. Allen County, in eastern Kansas, still has no confirmed cases, but residents are taking precautions.
McRae said last month he and his associated had debated whether to travel to Topeka for a meeting. They didn’t end up going.
“Things happen so fast,” McRae said. STILL SOCIAL DISTANCING
Hatfield, the Belle Plaine farmer, said people in his area aren’t jumping in pickup trucks together or visiting each other. Everyone is trying to be more conscientious of friends, family and neighbors, he said.
He and his wife recently ordered groceries online for the first time. The local co-op has been keeping everyone out of the office. The restaurants are closed when he drives through town.
“The interaction with everybody that we’re just so used to having is just not there,” Hatfield said.
But for now, all he can do is plant corn and feed his cattle.
“My cattle, they’re just waiting like everybody else,” he said. “They’d like to see it warm up and the grass green up a little better.”
The Star’s Nicole Asbury and Bryan Lowry contributed reporting
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment has confirmed a second positive case of COVID-19 in Ellis County.
The patient is doing well and currently in home isolation, following the guidance of the CDC and ECHD.
The positive case was identified through testing sent to a private lab.
These results will be verified by the CDC lab but will be treated as a positive unless determined otherwise.
ECHD has followed KDHE guidelines to identify any close contacts of the individual. Contacts have already been notified and directed to self-quarantine for 14 days.
The patient is a female in her 40s. No other information can be provided about the patient.
The two positive cases in Ellis County have no connection to each other. Neither case has a recent travel history.
Additional COVID-19 Cases Popping Up In Western Kansas Counties
Additional COVID-19 cases have been popping up in western Kansas and a store in Garden City is believed to be the source of several cases being reported there.
According to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, 17 counties in western Kansas are now reporting one or more confirmed COVID-19 cases, with the following counties reporting multiple COVID-19 cases: Finney (17), Ford (16), Seward (6) and Barton (4).
The Finney County Health Department reported Monday that people who shopped at Tienda Variedades Candy, 107 N. Jennie Barker Rd., Garden City, between March 16 and March 30, may have been exposed to coronavirus. Multiple people in Finney County who shopped at the store during that time have since become ill and tested positive for COVID-19.
The store has been closed since March 30, but anyone who shopped at the store on or before that date who has developed symptoms of COVID-19 – fever, cough, shortness of breath, loss of taste and/or smell – are being advised to stay home and contact the Finney County Health Department at 620-272-3600 to be appropriately screened.
Other counties in western Kansas reporting one or more cases include Osborne, Stafford, Pratt, Barber, Phillips, Rooks, Ellis, Gove, Scott, Hamilton, Stanton, Morton and Stevens.
As of Monday morning, there were 1,376 cases reported statewide, with 309 hospitalizations and 62 deaths.
Jewell County Announces Third Positive COVID-19 Case
The Jewell County Health Department received notification confirming our third case of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Jewell County.
The case involves a Jewell County resident who was a close contact with a laboratory confirmed positive COVID-19 case. The individual is currently maintaining in-home isolation and is stable. Jewell County Health Department is working to identify any close contacts of the individual and those who were exposed will be contacted as soon as possible. We will be monitoring these contacts for fever and respiratory symptoms. No further information about the patient will be released.
If you develop respiratory symptoms (cough, fever of 100.4 or higher, or shortness of breath) or are a potential direct contact of someone with a laboratory confirmed case of COVID-19 please contact your health care provider PRIOR to arriving at the facility. PLEASE DO NOT ARRIVE AT THE CLINIC, HOSPITAL OR ER PRIOR TO CALLING AHEAD. These actions will reduce the chance of exposure to our health care providers and allow for the most efficient usage of our currently limited health care resources.
Now more than ever, it is important to implement social distancing, limit your risk of exposure, and do your part in preventing the spread of COVID-19. All health care providers in our community are working together to safely and efficiently address your health care needs. Thank you for your cooperation and participation in keeping yourselves, your families and your community safe and healthy.
Farmers are used to adversity. Along with trade conflicts, weak commodity prices and fluctuating weather, farmers must now consider the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Life has changed as we know it. We’re all trying to figure out what this is and how it will affect agriculture,” said Robin Reid Kansas State University agricultural economist during an April 8 webinar. The event was one of two offered for women in agriculture.
In many cases, one parent is either working from home or has an off-farm job to go to while the other parent is planting spring crops or tending livestock.
“In highly volatile times, no one is going to stop eating, but we are learning a lot about how the supply chain works and how it can be disrupted,” said LaVell Winsor, agricultural economist with the K-State Research and Extension Farm Analyst program..
According to Winsor, the pandemic is a “black swan” event – one that could not be predicted or planned for but could have catastrophic effects. The spread of COVID-19 and resulting stay-at-home orders, business closures and potential supply chain disruptions due to transportation or labor difficulties are presenting more uncertainty and anxiety.
Dairy, beef cattle, hogs and corn have been hit the hardest, Reid said, adding that the corn market received a double whammy – the oil trade war between Russia and Saudi Arabia, which has driven oil and gasoline prices lower, plus less demand for ethanol because the pandemic-related stay-at-home orders means drivers are driving less.
About one-third of ethanol plants are predicted to close, Reid said, which reduces the need for corn.
Because of the predicted plant closures, an estimated 200 million to 500 million fewer bushels of corn will be needed this year compared with last.
“USDA had projected a $3.60 Marketing Year Average for this year’s corn crop,” Reid said. “I don’t believe that estimate will last because of the factors that are bringing corn prices down.”
U.S. grain sorghum prices, on the other hand, are strengthening because China is making purchases.
Wheat are up because countries such as Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan are stockpiling wheat for domestic consumption.
“As bread is flying off the shelves, we’ve seen more demand for wheat. That’s really the biggest boost,” Reid said.
Agricultural processors cannot always change quickly, which adds uncertainty to farmers deciding what crops to grow or how much milk or meat to produce.
“I can’t emphasize this enough -- continue to look at your farm financials,” Winsor said. “None of us feel very secure right now. Stay the course, and follow your plan, but make adjustments if needed.”
Number of blacks dying from COVID-19 in Kansas disproportionately high; Kansas reports 62 total deaths
New figures from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment showed that COVID-19 was striking a disproportionately high rate of black Kansans, at 16.4 percent.
The number of black Kansans who died from COVID-19 was 23, which was about 37 percent of the total who died, according to the report. The black population in Kansas is about 6.1 percent, according to recent U.S. Census figures.
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