photo by: Associated Press

In this Jan. 21, 2021 file photo a medical staff member prepares the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at Tudor Ranch in Mecca, Calif. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

Unified Command will make a change to its established Phase 2 coronavirus vaccine distribution process in order to vaccinate all residents of senior living facilities next week, according to the director of the health department.

On Wednesday, the Journal-World reported that 17 senior living facilities in the county were originally supposed to get vaccinated in Phase 1. When the state and Douglas County moved into Phase 2, however, Unified Command’s chair of the Vaccination Planning Unit said this population would not be given priority. As of Wednesday morning, 1,114 individuals in the 17 facilities needed to be vaccinated.

When asked what made Unified Command change its decision about vaccinating those in senior living facilities, Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health Director Dan Partridge said it was a combination of acquiring more doses and the response from the community.

“Finding 500 doses, seeing that the gap was 320, seeing a path to execution — all of those things factored into it,” Partridge said. “We knew that this was an area that people had a lot of concern around.”

Partridge said Unified Command worked with LMH Health this week “to just get real clarity on how many doses are there.” He said they “identified that there are actually more doses on hand than we anticipated.”

LMH Health was able to give the health department 500 doses for the 17 senior living facilities. Paired with vaccine doses the health department already had, Partridge said there was then a gap of 320 doses that needed to be filled to get that population completed next week.

To fill the gap, Unified Command agreed to deviate from the county’s Phase 2 distribution plan next week and give about 15% fewer doses to the following populations: local government workers, the K-12 education sector, food service workers and workers critical to the functioning of the community.

“So we’ve done a one-time reallocation and we are going to get them vaccinated next week,” Partridge said of those in senior living facilities.

The health department director also shared more information about how vaccines will be distributed among the various groups in Phase 2.

Each week, the health department will take the total number of vaccines received from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and take between 50 and 100 doses for the law enforcement sector. Heartland Community Health Center has been given the task of vaccinating law enforcement, and Partridge said about 400 people were in that group. The health department will also take between 50 and 150 doses each week for those in congregate care settings. The health department will likely travel to do onsite clinics for those groups, which would include settings like the Lawrence Community Shelter and Douglas County Jail.

Then, the remaining doses will be split in the following manner: 40% will be given to citizens ages 65 and older, 25% will go to the K-12 education sector, 15% will go to workers in the food service industry, 10% will go to essential workers in the local government, and 10% will go to workers critical to the functioning of the community.

Workers critical to the functioning of the community include people such as transportation workers, DMV and postal workers, agricultural and food processing workers, and those who supply services or materials that are used as part of the pandemic response.

Partridge said the percentages for each group were based on the population size.

“(The) goal is that each group would be completed at the same time,” he said.

Partridge anticipates the county will continue to receive between 1,000 and 3,000 doses each week. He said KDHE typically tells the health department its upcoming week’s allocation on Friday or Saturday. LMH Health will be in charge of vaccinating the 65 and older population, and all other groups will be vaccinated at the Douglas County Fairgrounds.