Photo by: Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health
January 15 COVID-19 update from the Department of Health
As of Friday, 3,337 first doses and 792 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in Douglas County, according to the health department.
George Diepenbrock, a spokesman for Lawrence-Douglas County Health Service, said the first 3,337 doses were given to LMH Health, Heartland, the health department, the Indian Haskell Health Center and long-term care institutions. The second dose was given to LMH Health.
“After we received deliveries this week, we finally feel that the supply of vaccines has increased,” Dan Partridge, director of the health department, said in an email to Journal-World. Partridge said LMH Health received 2,500 doses this week, which will be used to continue vaccinating Phase 1 health workers who have not yet received their first dose. Partridge also said that Heartland Community Health Center received 1,000 doses and that the health department received 300 doses.
“Right now, we feel pretty good that the state will send extra doses next week to cover more health workers, and our hope is that we will be able to complete Phase 1 in time for early February,” Partridge said.
Diepenbrock said Kansas added more people to Phase 1 last week – including “critical workers for continuity of pandemic response” and housing for the elderly and long-term care independent living communities. Thanks to these additions, Diepenbrock said Douglas County estimates that there are about 6,000 people left in Phase 1 who still need their first dose of vaccine. He said Lawrence-Douglas County Health is working with the state to determine who should be included in the group of “workers critical to the continuity of the pandemic response.”
As reported by Journal-World, people can sign up for an alert system to receive notifications about vaccine information in Douglas County. Previously, the Unified Command identified two alert systems in the county. On Friday, Diepenbrock said the county had decided to consolidate its efforts into a single alert system.
Those interested in signing up for 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 on Thursday.
In Douglas County, 6,253 of 7,470 cases are inactive or beyond the infectious period, according to Lawrence-Douglas County Health, which means 1,217 cases are active.
The county has registered an average of about 63 new cases per day in the last 14 days, according to a 14-day moving average chart updated on 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 rising 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 Hospital had COVID-19 on Thursday, the same number as on Wednesday. So far, 36 Douglas County residents have died from COVID-19.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s online map said 52,763 Douglas County residents have been tested for the disease so far. The county’s test rate per 1,000 people was 431.6.