photo by: Mike Yoder

Lawrence City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St., Thursday, July 7, 2016

Due to a delay in receiving the required testing supplies, the City of Lawrence is still waiting to begin its COVID-19 testing program for unvaccinated city employees, but it anticipates it will be able to begin the program soon.

It has been more than three months since the city announced it would begin mandatory COVID testing for unvaccinated employees, but Shelby Patch, the city’s risk manager, said delays in getting test supplies from the State of Kansas meant the city had not yet been able to implement the new testing policy. Patch said the city anticipated it would be able to begin the testing program “early next year.”

The Journal-World reached out to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to see what is causing or contributing to the delays in getting testing supplies to the city, but had not received a response as of Thursday afternoon.

Once the testing program gets underway, unvaccinated city employees will have to be tested weekly for the coronavirus. In addition the testing requirement, unvaccinated employees are ineligible to use the city’s COVID leave, which allows vaccinated city employees to not draw from their regular sick or vacation time if they become sick with COVID or have to quarantine, or if a family member becomes sick or has to quarantine.

Meanwhile, other testing programs for unvaccinated government employees are already underway locally.

Douglas County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson George Diepenbrock said mandated weekly testing for unvaccinated sheriff’s office employees began on Oct. 4. Diepenbrock said KDHE supplies the sheriff’s office with PCR saliva and nasal swab test kits. Referring to the delay in the city’s program, he said that since the sheriff’s office operates the jail, it may be treated differently than other employers. He noted that the sheriff’s office has worked with KDHE on a testing program for employees and those in custody at the jail for more than a year to avoid outbreaks.

Diepenbrock said the sheriff’s office has 187 employees, 86% of whom are vaccinated, meaning about 25 employees have to be tested weekly. He said the sheriff’s office was able to add those employees to the testing pool it was already operating. He added that sheriff’s office personnel are also able to deliver test samples to the KDHE lab in Topeka almost every day and can pick up additional test kits as part of those deliveries if needed.

Even with the delay of the weekly testing program for unvaccinated city employees, the percentage of city employees who are vaccinated has increased over the past few months since the city’s new testing and leave policy was announced.

When the city announced the new policy on Sept. 18, the city had verified that 77% of its employees were vaccinated. Patch said the city’s overall vaccination rate for staff is now 87%. The city has about 900 employees, meaning that about 100 employees will need to be tested weekly once the city’s new testing program begins.

The increase in vaccination for city employees includes some gains in the rates for first responders. In October, the vaccination rate for Lawrence police was 71%, compared to 89% for the Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical department. Patch said the vaccination rate for police is now 76%, while the rate for fire and medical employees is now 92%. As the Journal-World previously reported, the city’s police union said it supported the city’s testing policy but respected its members’ right to choose whether or not to be vaccinated.