TOPEKA, Kan. (KSNT) — It has been four weeks since the first positive case of the coronavirus hit Kansas. Now, as more test kits become available, the state is looking to test more people.
On Friday, Kansas Department of Health and Environment Secretary Lee Norman said that the state would be receiving hundreds of new test kits that take just 45 minutes to get results. With the new kits the state hopes to not only continue testing individuals with obvious symptoms, but also people who are seemingly healthy.
Secretary Norman says that young people are the most common ones spreading the virus to others. This is because young people often show little to no symptoms of the coronavirus. They don’t realize they are sick, so they continue to go to work or leave their home.
“Young people are less likely to follow rules and feel vulnerable. It’s the older folks and people with other kinds of immune deficiencies understand they’re at risk and young people don’t necessarily feel they’re at risk,” explained Secretary Norman.
He says by testing these people, they are able to quarantine if their results are positive, rather than continue to, unknowingly, spread the virus.
Secretary Norman says these population tests would begin in counties that are seeing large outbreaks of the virus. He says once the testing begins, it would likely only take a week to get through the entire process in the county.