Wichita Journalism Collaborative

In the race to find a COVID-19 vaccine, one of five major trials nationally will be conducted in collaboration with the KU School of Medicine-Wichita Center for Clinical Research along with more than 100 other testing sites nationally.

“We really do want to see if this vaccine is effective at preventing the spread of this disease,” said center director Tiffany Schwasinger-Schmidt, who is a physician and an assistant professor at the school.

Wichita State is set to receive about $8.2 million in federal aid as reimbursement for its efforts to limit the spread of the coronavirus on campus.

As state universities prepare to start their fall semesters, the Kansas Board of Regents on Thursday approved two relief packages meant to curb the costs that come with additional safety measures. Fall classes will begin at WSU on Monday, with all courses either online or in a hybrid format — meaning partially online and partially in-person.

As employees have been heading back to work in person, they saw no restrictions to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in Sedgwick County for more than a month.

Many residents of a Clearwater nursing home where 11 deaths from COVID-19 are now being reported were not given baths for more than five weeks, its former director of nursing says.

Christine Zeller, a registered nurse with a master’s degree in nursing, described the lack of bathing as part of a pattern of substandard care caused by employee turnover and a shortage of equipment and supplies at Clearwater Nursing & Rehabilitation. She made the allegations in written testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee of the Kansas Legislature last week.

Without their own living space in which to practice social distancing, many Wichitans who are homeless have continued to rely on communal living shelters during the COVID-19 pandemic.

KMUW is a partner in the Wichita Journalism Collaborative, which was announced this week.

The collaborative is an alliance of seven media organizations and three community groups. It was formed to support and enhance quality local journalism during the global pandemic and beyond when accurate, fact-based information is essential.

The members will share resources and work together in covering the challenges people will face in the coming year, as well as the responses to the pandemic by local government, organizations and individuals. 

The concentration of COVID-19 fatalities in one Wichita long-term care center is greater than previously reported.

A spokeswoman for Chisholm Place, 1859 N. Webb Rd., said this week that seven of its residents have died of the virus.

When Sedgwick County announced April 29 that Chisholm Place was the second COVID-19 cluster site at a long-term care facility, it reported two residents had died and a total of 36 residents and staff had tested positive.