photo by: Ashley Golledge

Jolene Bechtel administers a COVID-19 vaccine at the Douglas County Fairgrounds on Wednesday, March 31, 2021.

Updated at 5 p.m. Friday

Douglas County saw an increased demand for COVID-19 vaccines in the last week, the same timeframe that 12- to 15-year-olds became eligible for the Pfizer vaccine.

Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health reported Thursday that 56,734 first doses and 47,539 second doses of COVID-19 vaccine had been administered. That’s an increase of 2,015 first doses and 1,475 second doses since the county last reported vaccine distribution information to the Journal-World on May 13.

Prior to this past week, Douglas County had seen a decreasing demand for COVID-19 vaccinations, with fewer than 1,000 doses being administered in the county in the previous two weeks combined. Students ages 12 to 15 became eligible for the Pfizer vaccine on May 12.

According to data from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, as of Wednesday, 320 Douglas County residents between the ages of 12 and 15 had received their first dose of the Pfizer vaccine.

However, that number is likely much higher. Jeff Sigler, owner of Sigler Pharmacy, said the pharmacy started vaccine clinics for 12- to 15-year-olds on May 13 and had administered 800 doses through Tuesday. Sigler said most of the patients at those clinics were in the 12- to 15-year-old age group, but he did not say whether all of those were Douglas County residents. Sigler said it takes his team about a day to enter the data from clinics into Kansas’ immunization registry.

KDHE spokesperson Kristi Zears said that some of the discrepancy in the numbers could be a timing issue based on when reports were generated compared to when the clinics occurred. She also said that not everyone vaccinated in a particular county may be a resident of that county. Zears did not answer how many Douglas County residents between the ages of 12 and 15 had been vaccinated as of Friday.

In total, with residents ages 12 and above, Thursday’s vaccine distribution data from Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health shows that local organizations have administered 56,734 of the 67,148 first doses they have received, or around 84.5%. They have also administered 47,539 of the 51,385 second doses they have received, or around 92.5%.

With both first and second doses, Douglas County organizations had administered 104,273 total doses as of Thursday. That’s an increase of 3,490 doses since data was last reported on May 13.

As of 12:30 p.m. on Friday, 57,659 Douglas County residents had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, according to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.

Douglas County is currently the second most vaccinated county in Kansas against COVID-19, following Marshall County. According to KDHE’s dashboard, as of Friday at 12:30 p.m., 471 out of every 1,000 Douglas County residents had received at least one dose. Additionally, 561 out of every 1,000 residents who were eligible for a vaccine had received at least one dose.

The number of doses administered in Douglas County and the number of Douglas County residents who have been vaccinated are slightly different. Occasionally, people are vaccinated in counties other than their counties of residence because of work or school.

In Kansas, the vaccine is currently available to everyone 12 and older. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are recommended for those 18 and older. The Pfizer vaccine is recommended for those 12 and older.

Registration for all of the health department’s vaccination clinics is open to the public, and registration codes are posted at LDCHealth.org/COVIDVaccine and Douglascountyks.org/Coronavirus. Community members may also get a vaccine at LMH Health without making an appointment.

Other vaccine distributors in Douglas County include: AuBurn Pharmacies in Baldwin City and Eudora, CVS, Dillons, Hy-Vee, Jayhawk Pharmacy, Medical Arts Pharmacy, Orchards Drug, Sigler Pharmacy, Walgreens and Walmart.

People who have questions about COVID-19 or the vaccination process can call the county’s COVID hotline at 785-864-9000 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

13 new cases in county

Douglas County reported 9,313 cases of COVID-19 as of Friday, an increase of 13 cases since Wednesday.

In Douglas County, 9,166 of the 9,313 cases are inactive or beyond the infectious period, meaning 147 cases are active.

The county has averaged about five 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 4.93 cases per day is up slightly from a recent low of 4.79 cases per day earlier this week and is down from a recent high of nine cases per day in April.

Douglas County has a 14-day COVID-19 incidence rate of 57.36 per 100,000 people and a test positivity rate of 1.5%. Positivity rates are 3% in Eudora, 1.5% in Lawrence and 0% in Baldwin City and Lecompton. Two patients at Lawrence’s hospital had COVID-19 on Friday, one fewer than Wednesday. To date, 87 Douglas County residents have died from COVID-19.