COVID spike arrives late, hits hard in rural Kansas county

Most of the 30-plus residents in the local nursing home caught the virus, and six have died since late September.Gove County, with a population of 2,600, is among many rural counties in Kansas and across the Midwest that are being stressed by the pandemic and its late arrival.The county’s 22-bed medical center only has a handful of beds dedicated to coronavirus patients and not enough staff to monitor the most serious cases around the clock.Even so, some leaders are reluctant to stir up ill will by talking about how often friends and neighbors wear masks or questioning how officials responded. The medical center includes the community hospital and the nursing home.Gove County is perhaps best known for an isolated stand of chalk pyramids that can tower 60 feet (18 meters) above the prairie, and some residents live closer to Denver than the Kansas capital of Topeka.President Donald Trump is popular in the county, and local officials quickly abandoned a mask mandate this summer after getting heat from some residents and amid the president’s criticism of such policies.