<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/9/1599677747477.png" alt="Lee Norman, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, says the identification of COVID-19 hot spots will help guide residents in decisions about their personal safety. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)" />
 <figcaption>Lee Norman, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, says the identification of COVID-19 hot spots will help guide residents in decisions about their personal safety. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)</figcaption>
 </figure>By SHERMAN SMITH <a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2020/09/09/kansas-names-businesses-schools-churches-long-term-care-facilities-with-covid-19-outbreaks/">Kansas Reflector</a>TOPEKA — The Kansas 
Department of Health and Environment on Wednesday released for the first
 time the names and places associated with active outbreaks of COVID-19 
across the state.The list includes seven 
Greek houses at Kansas State University, plus eight other universities 
and colleges, more than two-dozen long-term care facilities, four 
religious gatherings, two public schools and six sports teams.KDHE also reported 495 
Kansas residents have died from the novel coronavirus, an 8% increase 
from last week. Health officials have documented 47,410 cases since the 
virus was first detected in Kansas in early March.<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2020/09/02/kansas-health-secretary-wary-of-lake-perry-motorcycle-rally-im-sure-well-see-an-outbreak/">Gov. Laura Kelly’s office last week announced</a>
 the decision to begin naming the locations connected to five or more 
confirmed cases of COVID-19. For private businesses, the threshold for 
being named publicly is 20 cases.“One of the things we’re 
sensitive to is we want to grow business,” KDHE secretary Lee Norman 
said during last week’s briefing. “We want to help businesses thrive and
 be safe places for people to do commerce. That’s why we set that for 
private businesses.”Seven business groups, 
including the Kansas Chamber of Commerce, sent a letter to the governor 
on Wednesday asking her not to move forward with plans to identify 
active cases associated with businesses.In addition to the Kansas 
Chamber, the letter was sent on behalf of Associated General Contractors
 of Kansas, Kansas Livestock Association, Kansas Bankers Association, 
National Federation of Independent Businesses, the Builders Association,
 and Wichita Regional Chamber of Commerce.“We are unsure what the 
benefit of this disclosure offers, other than a public shaming of 
businesses where an outbreak occurs,” said Kansas Chamber president and 
CEO Alan Cobb. “That said, we are curious what legal basis or authority 
exists for the state to adopt this policy and whether the governor and 
her administration have considered any possible legal ramifications 
against either the state or a business impacted by this policy decision.
 We have seen Kansas businesses go above and beyond the call to protect 
their employees, customers, and Kansans during the last five months.”KDHE reported the Amazon 
Fulfillment Center in Kansas City has 42 active cases, and eight 
businesses where food is handled are associated with more than 2,000 
cases. They include 594 at Cargill and 647 at National Beef meatpacking 
plants in Dodge City.Norman said public 
identification of hot spots will give residents information they need to
 make decisions about their own safety. But it’s a departure from the 
first five months of the pandemic, when officials considered the 
information to be classified.In June, <a href="https://www.kansascity.com/news/coronavirus/article243305606.html">the Kansas City Star first reported</a>
 on a secret internal document that detailed every active outbreak. The 
document was made available through an open records request by Columbia 
University’s Brown Institute for Media Innovation.Kansas Reflector has 
submitted an open records request seeking the name, location and number 
of cases for any business associated with an active cluster of any size.KDHE identified clusters 
associated with religious gatherings at Faith Chapel Assembly of God in 
Louisburg (21), Faith Tabernacle Apostolic Church in Junction City (7), 
Hannah’s House in Independence (9) and Plevna Church in Plevna (14).The largest cluster among 
higher education institutions is at Benedictine College in Atchison, 
where there are 98 active cases. There are also outbreaks associated 
with Emporia State University, Fort Hays State University, Pittsburg 
State University, Dodge City Community College, Hutchinson Community 
College, Bethel College and Hesston College.At K-State, there are 60 
cases spread among Alpha Delta Pi, Alpha Xi Delta, Delta Sigma Phi, 
Kappa Kappa Gamma, Phi Delta Theta, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, and Theta Xi.KDHE’s report says 31 
cases in Cherokee County are associated with the Maranatha Church Camp 
in Everton, Missouri, and nine cases are associated with the We Buy 
BlaKCK event in Kansas City.The largest outbreak at a long-term care facility is at Holiday Resort in Emporia, where there are 88 cases.<div><div class="flourish-embed flourish-table" data-src="visualisation/3696581" data-url="https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/3696581/embed" aria-label=""><script src="https://public.flourish.studio/resources/embed.js"></script></div></div>

Kansas reveals names of sites with COVID-19 outbreaks