Kansas COVID cases low as infections trend upward nationwide

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend getting a 2025-2026 COVID-19 vaccine update, depending on personal choice, but especially if you Getting the 2025–2026 COVID-19 vaccine is especially important if you: never received a COVID-19 vaccine; are 65 years old and older; are at high risk for severe COVID-19; are living in a long-term care facility; are pregnant, breastfeeding, trying to get pregnant, or might become pregnant in the future; or you want to lower the risk of getting Long COVID. (Photo by Getty Images)

By Morgan Chilson

Kansas Reflector

TOPEKA — Cases of COVID-19 are increasing in 48 states, although emergency department visits are still low, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

In Kansas, which the CDC ranks as “likely growing” in its number of COVID-19 infections, the

number of cases seen in the emergency department was less than 0.1% of all visits for the week ending Aug. 22, said Jill Bronaugh, spokeswoman for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. 

“COVID-19 is not a reportable condition in Kansas, which means every case that is diagnosed or every positive test does NOT come to KDHE,” Bronaugh said in an email to Kansas Reflector. “Instead, we rely on monitoring of emergency department data to give us a sense of COVID-19 trends.”

A CDC map shows that the areas seeing more COVID-19 in Kansas are in the northeast of the state, in counties around Topeka and Kansas City, and in the counties surrounding Wichita. 

CDC wastewater monitoring updated Thursday also shows low levels of COVID-19 virus in Kansas. 

Kansas COVID-19 infections remain low as cases begin to rise nationally. Cases being reported are located around the state’s larger cities. (Kansas Reflector screen capture of U.S. Centers for Disease Control map)