photo by: Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health

Jan. 20 COVID-19 update from the health department

According to a new vaccine dashboard, 111,905 Kansans had been vaccinated against COVID-19 as of Wednesday.

Gov. Laura Kelly announced the dashboard, which can be accessed online at kansasvaccine.gov/158/Data, on Wednesday. It will be updated Monday, Wednesday and Friday by 12:30 p.m.

On Wednesday, Kansas had distributed 202,225 doses, and of those doses, 129,349 had been administered. Of those 129,349 administered doses, 111,632 were first doses and 17,712 were second doses, according to the dashboard. The dashboard notes that the number of people vaccinated may differ from total number of first doses administered “if records are complete for second doses but not first.” According to the dashboard, 3.8% of Kansans have been vaccinated thus far.

Kelly also announced Wednesday that Kansas will move to Phase 2 of its vaccination plan on Thursday. Phase 2, as the Journal-World reported, will include people ages 65 and older, high-contact critical workers, those living in congregate settings and any one from Phase 1 who has not yet been vaccinated.

Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health announced Wednesday night that its first public vaccine clinic would be Jan. 29 at the Douglas County Fairgrounds. Within 30 minutes of the health department’s announcement, however, all 500 appointment slots for the day had been filled, according to spokesperson George Diepenbrock. Diepenbrock said the health department will make an announcement when future times are available, if the health department receives additional doses.

“This is all dependent on the availability of doses of the vaccine. Given the large population who would qualify under Phase 2, we expect it will take several weeks to vaccinate everyone in this phase, so we continue to ask for patience from our community members,” said Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health Director Dan Partridge. “That said, we are excited to make progress on vaccinating those health care workers and others who qualify under Phase 1 and proceed into Phase 2, including to begin to vaccinate those 65 and older who are most vulnerable to COVID-19.”

Douglas County reported 7,739 cases of COVID-19 as of Wednesday, an increase of 122 cases since Tuesday. The health department noted in its update that the influx in cases on Wednesday was largely due to some providers not sending in positive lab results in a timely manner, and that a majority of those cases are no longer active.

In Douglas County, 6,626 out of the 7,739 cases are inactive or beyond the infectious period, according to Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health, meaning 1,113 cases are active.

The county has averaged about 57 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 57.14 new cases per day is down from a high of 80 cases per day in mid-November and up from a recent low of 43 cases per day in mid-December.

Douglas County has a 14-day COVID-19 incidence rate of 665.06 per 100,000 people.

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