photo by: Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health

April 8 COVID-19 update from the health department

After county health leaders alerted the public on Tuesday afternoon that there were nearly 2,000 appointments still available for a vaccine clinic on Wednesday, only about 1,000 people signed up to fill the spots.

George Diepenbrock, spokesperson for Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health, said 2,856 doses of the Pfizer vaccine were administered on Wednesday, but the health department could have administered 4,100.

No doses were wasted, however. Diepenbrock said the remaining doses were not removed from frozen storage, and will be used as part of next week’s vaccine clinics. He also said that in working on next week’s schedule, the health department is looking at ways to diversify times, in case the typical vaccine clinic hours have barred some people from scheduling appointments. Diepenbrock said the clinic times will be publicized when finalized.

As for Friday’s clinic, Diepenbrock said there are 1,104 first doses and 2,700 second doses scheduled. The first dose vaccine appointment slots are all filled for Friday.

“We saw this last week too when we offered some first dose appointments on Friday, so it appears that changing the day has hopefully helped catch a group of people we hadn’t been able to reach yet for a time slot,” he said.

20 new COVID cases reported

Douglas County reported 8,999 cases of COVID-19 as of Thursday, an increase of 20 cases since Tuesday.

In Douglas County, 8,784 out of the 8,999 cases are inactive or beyond the infectious period, according to Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health, meaning 215 cases are active.

The health department will not update its COVID-19 epidemiological dashboard on Friday, as the office will be closed for a vaccine clinic.

The county has averaged about 9 new cases per day over the last 14 days, according to a 14-day moving average graph updated weekdays by the health department. The current average of 8.5 new cases per day is up from a low of just under seven new cases per day in mid-March and down from a recent high of 71 cases per day in early January.

Douglas County has a 14-day COVID-19 incidence rate of 98.93 per 100,000 people and a test positivity rate of 2.4%. Test positivity rates are 2.5% in Lawrence, 2.1% in Baldwin City, 2% in Eudora and 0% in Lecompton. Five patients at Lawrence’s hospital had COVID-19 on Thursday, two fewer than Tuesday. To date, 86 Douglas County residents have died from COVID-19.

Anyone who has not completed Douglas County’s vaccine interest form may do so online at dgcoks.org/vaccineinterestform. Any residents with questions about COVID-19 or the vaccine interest form may call Douglas County’s help line at 785-864-9000.