photo by: Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health

Jan. 15 COVID-19 update from the health department

As of Friday, 3,337 first doses and 792 second doses of COVID-19 vaccines had been administered in Douglas County, according to the health department.

George Diepenbrock, spokesperson for Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health, said the 3,337 first doses have been administered at LMH Health, Heartland, the health department, Haskell Indian Health Center and long-term care facilities. The second doses had been administered at LMH Health.

“After receiving shipments this week, we are finally feeling like the vaccine supplies have thickened,” Dan Partridge, the health department’s director, said in an email to the Journal-World. Partridge said LMH Health received 2,500 doses this week, which will be used to continue vaccinating health care workers in Phase 1 who have not yet received their first dose. Partridge also said Heartland Community Health Center received 1,000 doses and that the health department received 300 doses.

“Right now, we are feeling pretty good that the state will send additional doses next week to cover more health care workers, and our hope is that we will be able to get done with Phase 1 in time for early February,” Partridge said.

Diepenbrock said Kansas added more people to Phase 1 last week — including “workers critical to pandemic response continuity” and senior housing and long-term care independent living communities. Due to these additions, Diepenbrock said Douglas County estimates it has about 6,000 people left in Phase 1 who still need their first dose of the vaccine. He said Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health is working with the state to determine who it should include in the “workers critical to pandemic response continuity” group.

As the Journal-World reported, people can sign up for an alert system to receive notifications about Douglas County vaccine information. Previously, Unified Command identified two alert systems within the county. On Friday, Diepenbrock said the county has decided to consolidate its efforts into one alert system.

Those interested in signing up for the alerts should do so through Douglas County Emergency Management via dgcoks.org/emalerts.

Douglas County reported 7,470 cases of COVID-19 as of Friday, an increase of 30 cases since Thursday.

In Douglas County, 6,253 out of the 7,470 cases are inactive or beyond the infectious period, according to Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health, meaning 1,217 cases are active.

The county has averaged about 63 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 63.29 new cases per day is down from a recent high of 78 cases per day in mid-November and up from a recent low of 43 cases per day in December.

Douglas County has a 14-day COVID-19 incidence rate of 736.55 per 100,000 people.

Fifteen patients at Lawrence’s hospital had COVID-19 on Thursday, the same number as Wednesday. To date, 36 Douglas County residents have died of COVID-19.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s online map noted that 52,763 Douglas County residents had been tested for the disease so far. The county’s testing rate per 1,000 people was 431.6.