Cases of the COVID-19 Delta variant are on the rise throughout the state. There are currently 358 total cases in Kansas. Twelve of those are confirmed cases within Shawnee County, but health officials said they are pretty confident there are more. The Shawnee County Health Department is monitoring outbreaks in the area, but they can’t confirm them as the Delta variant just yet. Positive COVID-19 tests that check for the variant have to go through genome sequencing, which means they are tested a certain way in a lab and that takes more time. “They take that and they look at the whole viral genome which is everything that makes up the virus,” Derik Flerlage, the Infectious Disease Manager with the Shawnee County Health Department, said. “Compared to the positives that are occurring and the amount of testing that is going on we can’t sequence one hundred percent of the specimens.”
Source: KSNT News
