KANSAS CITY, Kan. — There are far more people infected with COVID-19 than are showing up in publicly released data.
That comment comes from Dr. Sharon Lee, who started the metro's first drive-up testing site.
"I think all of our numbers are much higher than what we're able to tell now. Everything is delayed. So what we're actually looking at on the state data is actually about two weeks old," Lee said.
Jayden and Carla, a young couple, drove to Lee's Kansas City, Kansas, clinic on Friday.
Carla, 23, said she's had a high fever and a sore throat for about a week.
With a prescription from a doctor, a health care worker took a sample from Carla's nostril to test for COVID-19.
"It was not pleasant at all, made me tear up. Yeah, I mean there's nothing we can do beside stay home," Carla said.
Carla and Jayden moved from Idaho to KCK at the beginning of the year.
The couple has a 9-month-old son.
"I don't want to get my baby sick, so we're just going to stay home, stay away from each other I guess as best as we can. We don't want anyone else to get sick," Carla said.
If Carla does have the virus, she thinks there's one likely place she may have picked it up.
"Probably the grocery store. I mean we don't go anywhere else. We've only been to the grocery store for the past couple of weeks," Carla said.
Carla is one of about 200 people who've been tested at Lee's clinic.
Those tests are only being performed on sick people with a doctor's prescription.
"Within that ballpark, what we see is that initially, out of every test that we did, maybe a third or a quarter of them were positive. Now we're getting closer to half be positive," Lee said.
"We've seen information coming from New York and New Jersey. We don't want Kansas City to go that route. And the only way that we can keep Kansas City from developing the levels of coronavirus that overwhelms our hospital system is to stay home and not have contact with each other," she added.
On Monday, the Wyandotte County Public Health Department began Monday through Friday testing from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. by appointment only.
The five-day-a-week walk-up testing is an effort to give greater access to the community, including people who may not have a doctor's prescription or health insurance.
However, the tests will only be given to sick people.
"I think they're trying to step up. You know, it's always an issue with resources," Lee said.
She also said the medical community doesn't know all the reasons some people get very sick from COVID-19, while for 80 percent of people who contract the virus, it's like a mild cold.
Lee said what is clear is older people are especially at risk.
"When people go to visit grandma and the first thing they do is kiss grandma on the cheek, they may have just doomed her," Lee said.
Lee said concerns about the virus are impacting her own personal life because she lives with her 89-year-old mother.
"I no longer give her hugs. I no longer give her kisses. I pat her. If she gets it, she will die," Lee said.
Carla and Jayden live in a KCK apartment complex with neighbors they said are older.
They try to avoid them.
"I don't really know what else to say. I guess if you're faithful, to pray," Carla said.
Lee said with testing currently only on sick people, the data doesn't reflect how widespread coronavirus might be in the metro.
"In order to really get a handle on it, we're going to have to do antibody testing and we're going to have to test a higher percentage of the population," she said.
To get an appointment for a health department test, Wyandotte County residents can visit the agency's website or call 311 for help.
—
