Wichita County's first reported case of COVID-19 hit the KDHE reporting metrics on July 22, 2020, more than six months after the first reported case in the United States, and more than two and a half months after the state began to reopen.
While the nation's cumulative number of infected individuals is expected to cross the 8,000,000 mark this week, Wichita County had maintained one of the lowest infection numbers in the state.
For 15 weeks, our cumulative case load remained at 4; then for another 13 weeks at 5. And then came October.
As of press time, the Wichita County Health Department reports 14 cumulative cases. Eight of those are active, while 6 have recovered.
At least one of our currently-infected neighbors works at the Wichita County Health Center, which is now undergoing mass testing of all residents, employees, and patients. Lives are at risk.
A double-digit number of students is now in quarantine due to potential exposure. Inclass learning (and sports) are threatened.
We wish our afflicted friends and neighbors a quick and thorough recovery with no lingering after-effects. For those in quarantine, please understand what it means and abide by the rules without exception.
The Native Sun doesn’t know who is or was infected nor do we know under what circumstances. But we have observed a complacency in this community that borders on, if not homicidal, then at least voluntary manslaughter.
The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention has maintained guidelines since at least March urging Americans to wear a face mask, to maintain social distancing of at least 6 feet (10 feet is preferable), vigorously wash their hands often (for at least 20 seconds), and to employ hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol content when soap and water is not available.
These methods are known to slow or stop the spread of the virus. No serious or sane person disputes this. Period.
The disease is not a hoax. People are not assigning “death by covid” to juice the numbers. We have not rounded the corner. There is no vaccine coming this month or before election day. No one is “immune” to the virus.
Worldwide, at least five patients are confirmed to have suffered a re-infection of the coronavirus.
Recently, a 25-year-old Nevada man with no underlying illnesses was confirmed hospitalized due to his infection with a different SARS-CoV-2 strain two months after recovering from a first case.
On Tuesday, October 13, CNN reported that an 89-year-old Dutch woman with a rare type of cancer was the first known person to die after contracting COVID-19 a second time.
The face masks most of us are able to acquire and use have a hidden vulnerability: they don’t protect you; they protect people FROM you. This is why everyone should wear one. My mask protects you from me. Your mask protects Jane from you. Jane’s mask protects John from Jane.
But if Jane isn’t wearing a mask, then none of us is protected. When Jane sings in church or screams encouragement to her favorite sports team (indoors or outdoors, spit doesn’t care), then Jane is endangering every single person around her.
Wichita County has been lucky so far to see so few cases and no deaths. But do you want to be the one who infects the person who dies first?
Let us be clear. There is no stigma attached to having contracted COVID-19. It is a coronavirus, one of seven known that can infect humans. Others in the same family are SARS and MERS. It is an infectious disease in constant search of the nearest host.
Don’t be that host. Don’t let your neighbor or child or grandparent be that host. We absolutely must destroy this virus in our community before winter starts in earnest and we are all trapped inside again. Don’t do it for you. Do it for your loved one. Wear a mask.
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