photo by: Ashley Golledge

A sign points to LMH Health's new drive-thru COVID-19 vaccination center on Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2020.

Updated at 5:14 p.m. Thursday

Unified Command has announced a new COVID-19 help line that Douglas County residents can call for all questions related to the virus.

The line can be reached at 785-864-9000 and will be available from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to noon Saturday. Any calls outside of those hours will be rerouted to the United Way of Douglas County. Residents are encouraged to call the help line for questions related to vaccination, testing, symptoms, local public health orders and other COVID-related questions.

“We are thrilled to be able to launch this much-needed service in the Douglas County community,” Douglas County Emergency Management Director Robert Bieniecki said in a press release. “Unified Command agencies and partners have been overwhelmed with thousands of phone calls from citizens seeking information related to COVID. The COVID Helpline will help streamline this process and help provide answers.”

When calling the help line, people will first hear a recording that includes information about the line. Then, they will be put on hold until someone can answer their call. When the Journal-World called the line on Thursday morning, this reporter was on hold for less than 30 seconds before reaching someone.

The University of Kansas had been using the help line number to answer questions related to COVID-19 prior to the start of the school year. But now KU has expanded its services, with the help of staff from the Senior Resource Center, LMH Health and Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health, to serve the broader population.

Andrew Foster, the emergency management coordinator for KU, said the call center has about eight to 10 staff on hand right now answering phones, but the center has the capacity to expand to 28 people. He said that all the people answering the calls are employees of KU, LMH Health, Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health or the Senior Resource Center. All the employees received training from the various organizations involved in Douglas County’s COVID-19 response efforts so that they can knowledgeably answer questions, he said.

George Diepenbrock, spokesperson for Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health, said that the call center fielded between 300 and 350 calls during half the day on Wednesday, which was when the new service launched. Diepenbrock said the county hoped that having one phone number to call would make it easier for people to get their questions answered. He also said it helped the county consolidate its resources. Bieniecki said the county was grateful that KU is part of the effort to provide this service.

“They’ve been instrumental throughout the county’s COVID response and recovery efforts and this is just one example of how the university has stepped up in a big way,” he said in the release.

Foster said KU was happy to be part of the collaborative effort and that while it was trying its best to make it a seamless transition, there may be some kinks in the system as the call center begins receiving a larger volume of calls from Douglas County community members.

County notes another COVID-19 death, bringing total to 79

Another Douglas County resident has died from COVID-19, according to the county health department, bringing the total number of COVID-19-related deaths in the county to 79.

The new death was a man in the 85-plus age range who was not hospitalized due to COVID-19. Diepenbrock said the health department was recently notified of the death by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s Office of Vital Statistics, but that the death occurred in mid-February.

According to the health department’s dashboard, there have been 38 deaths in the 85-plus age range, 22 deaths in the 75 to 84 age range, 13 deaths in the 65 to 74 age range, five deaths in the 55 to 64 age range and one death in the 45 to 54 age range.

Douglas County reported 8,679 cases of COVID-19 as of Thursday, an increase of 26 cases since Tuesday. The health department did not update its epidemiological dashboard on Wednesday because it was closed for a vaccine clinic. The dashboard will also not be updated Friday due to another vaccine clinic.

In Douglas County, 8,380 out of the 8,679 cases are inactive or beyond the infectious period, according to Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health, meaning 299 cases are active.

The county has averaged about 10 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 10.14 new cases is the lowest average the county has seen since mid-August.

Douglas County has a 14-day COVID-19 incidence rate of 118.05 per 100,000 people and a test positivity rate of 2.4%. Test positivity rates are 3% in Eudora and Baldwin City, 2.9% in Lecompton and 2.3% in Lawrence. Six patients at Lawrence’s hospital had COVID-19 on Thursday, one fewer than Tuesday.

Anyone who has not completed Douglas County’s vaccine interest form may do so online at dgcoks.org/vaccineinterestform. Any residents who do not have internet access or who need help filling out the form may contact the Senior Resource Center at 785-842-0543 and leave a message. Staff will return calls during business hours in the order calls are received.