Photo by: Associated Press
A nurse administers a COVID-19 vaccination at a distribution center on Thursday, January 21, 2021, at North Side Baptist Church in Weatherford, Texas. (Yffy Yossifor / Star-Telegram via AP)
Douglas County residents could now fill out a form to indicate the level of interest in receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, what stage they think they qualify for and how they would like to be notified when the vaccines become available.
The form can be completed online at dgcoks.org/vaccineinterestform.
Completing the survey will not create an appointment or reserve a vaccine, a health department statement said Friday, but it will help planners streamline the notification and scheduling process by identifying which phase people qualify for.
This announcement from the health department comes after some residents expressed concern that the phase 2 vaccine registration process was competitive and unfair. Douglas County currently has a Phase 2 vaccination clinic scheduled for Jan. 29 for people 65 and older, but all 500 meetings have been completed within 25 minutes of the alert. When the county announced another 460 appointments for January 29, these seats were filled within 13 minutes.
“With an extremely limited amount of vaccine at the moment, we realize it’s frustrating for people who haven’t been able to schedule appointments for themselves or their loved ones,” said Charlie Bryan, business systems analyst, president. Vaccination Planning Unit Unified Order. “This new form will help us identify which phase people would qualify for so that we can communicate effectively with them as doses become available for their priority group. We believe this will help the notification process in the future. ”
Any residents who need help filling out the form can contact the Senior Resource Center at 785-842-0543 and leave a message. Staff will return calls during business hours while receiving calls.
The county notes 27 new cases
Douglas County reported 7,818 cases of COVID-19 as of Friday, an increase of 27 cases on Thursday.
In Douglas County, 6,816 of the 7,818 cases are inactive or beyond the infectious period, according to Lawrence-Douglas County Health, which means 1,002 cases are active.
The county has registered an average of about 46 new cases per day in the last 14 days, according to a 14-day moving average chart updated during the week by the health department. The current average of 46.14 new cases per day decreased from a maximum of 80 cases per day in mid-November and increased from a recent low of about 45 cases per day in mid-December.
Douglas County has a 14-day COVID-19 incidence rate of 537.04 per 100,000 people. Last Friday, 4,129 doses of COVID-19 vaccines had been given to LMH Health, Heartland, the health department, the Haskell Indian Health Center and long-term care units. This week, 4,644 doses were administered through the same facilities. Douglas County has so far received 11,239 doses of vaccine.
Twelve patients at Lawrence Hospital had COVID-19 on Friday, two less than on Thursday. So far, 36 Douglas County residents have died from COVID-19.