GARDEN CITY, Kansas -- Western Kansas is seeing a spike in cases of the new coronavirus. But Finney County -- where Garden City is -- has upped its ability to test people.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment provided more testing supplies for the county’s health department, allowing it to do up to 50 per day.
Finney County also has a new offsite testing location, which opened Monday. The plan is to limit health care workers’ exposure to the virus.
County health department director Colleen Drees expects a large number of people to be tested.
“We’ll follow the same increasing trend as other communities have. And so we will eventually get to a peak. Of course we don’t know what those numbers will look like,” Drees said.
Finney County reported 38 cases of coronavirus Monday, while the nearby counties of Ford and Seward have seen dozens show up within the last week. Ford County reported 180 cases and Seward County reported 79 cases on Monday.
You can only be tested in Finney County if you call the county’s COVID-19 hotline at 620-272-3600 and make an appointment.
Corinne Boyer covers western Kansas for High Plains Public Radio and the Kansas News Service. You can follow her on Twitter @Corinne_Boyer or email cboyer (at) hppr (dot) org.
The Kansas News Service is a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW and High Plains Public Radio focused on health, the social determinants of health and their connection to public policy.
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