The COVID-19 pandemic has many ongoing side effects — increased drinking, worse mental health and increased risk of diabetes, cancer and other diseases. And, in Wichita and other places, more traffic deaths. The increase in deaths comes despite a drop in auto accidents. Exactly why isn’t clear. “We just do not know why,” said Chad […]
pandemic
Posted inEconomics, Health
Years of nurse short-staffing culminate in second strike in six months at two Ascension hospitals
After a monthslong struggle against cost-cutting measures, nurses at two Ascension Via Christi hospitals in Wichita went on strike for the second time in six months on Dec. 6 as negotiations dragged between the union and the state’s largest health care provider. Ascension Via Christi’s St. Francis and St. Joseph hospitals are dealing with ongoing […]
Posted inHousing, Local Government
Kansas has $56 million to help homeowners struggling to pay their mortgage following pandemic
In the first quarter of 2022, the state of Kansas had nearly 10,000 past-due mortgages. Six of 10 of those mortgages were at least three months late and considered seriously delinquent, according to Marilyn Stanley, the program director for the Kansas Homeowner Assistance Fund. A new $56.6 million statewide program funded by the federal American […]
Posted inHealth
‘Why am I still here?’: Three Wichita-area nurses on the personal toll of the pandemic
The numbers are clear — COVID cases in Kansas reached an unprecedented peak in January. Local Wichita hospitals were not spared. “Over the last several weeks, we’ve seen numbers of hospitalizations that were even higher than the peak from 2020,” Dr. Samer Antonios, chief clinical officer at Ascension Via Christi, said in January during an event […]
Posted inEducation
Students are back at Wichita colleges, but the COVID-19 picture remains murky
It’s Olivia Compton’s sixth spring semester in college, her third in the COVID-19 era and her first at Friends University. At this point, she has an air of having seen it all, even as the omicron variant shatters what looked like the light at the end of the tunnel for the pandemic during the fall […]
Posted inEducation
Lunch. Soccer. Class. COVID. Wichita students on starting new year of pandemic learning
What happens when the unprecedented becomes precedented? As Kansas schools wrap up the first month of a second year of pandemic learning, they’re still struggling with many of the same challenges as last year, even as they’re left with fewer tools to address them. But for Wichita area high school students, returning for another COVID-19 school year means the virus has become a regular part […]