TOPEKA, Kan. – As of 9 a.m. on Friday, 55,395 Douglas County residents had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, according to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE).
Last week, KDHE told the Journal-World that 56,658 Douglas County residents had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. When asked why the number decreased from last week to this week, KDHE spokesperson Kristi Zears said there was a technical error last week that resulted in some duplicated entries in Douglas County. She said the error has now been accounted for, and specified that KDHE’s data is preliminary.
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 9 a.m., 453 out of every 1,000 Douglas County residents had received at least one dose. Additionally, 539 out of every 1,000 residents who were eligible for a vaccine had received at least one dose.
As for COVID-19 doses administered in Douglas County, data from local health organizations showed that more than 53,000 first doses of COVID-19 vaccine had been administered in Douglas County as of Thursday.
Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health reported that 53,737 first doses and 44,181 second doses of COVID-19 vaccine had been administered. That’s an increase of 2,848 first doses and 6,665 second doses since the county last reported vaccine distribution information to the Journal-World on April 22.
The most recent vaccine distribution data shows that local organizations have administered 53,737 of the 65,825 first doses they have received, or around 81.6%. The four organizations have also administered 44,181 of the 50,985 second doses they have received, or around 86.7%.
With both first and second doses, Douglas County organizations had administered 97,918 total doses as of Thursday. That’s an increase of 9,513 doses since data was last reported on April 22.
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, due to work or school.
In Kansas, the vaccine is currently available to people in Phases 1 through 5, meaning everyone 16 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 16 and older.
Registration for all of the health department’s vaccination clinics are open to the public, and registration codes are posted at LDCHealth.org/COVIDVaccine and Douglascountyks.org/Coronavirus. The county will no longer host mass vaccination clinics at the Douglas County Fairgrounds. Starting next week, the health department will run drive-thru clinics at LMH Health. People may either get a vaccination at LMH Health without any advance appointment or schedule an appointment in advance on the aforementioned websites.
Other vaccine distributors in Douglas County include: AuBurn Pharmacies in Baldwin City and Eudora, CVS, Dillons, Hy-Vee, 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.
Douglas County reports 11 new COVID-19 cases
Douglas County reported 9,205 cases of COVID-19 as of Friday, an increase of 11 cases since Wednesday.
In Douglas County, 8,985 out of the 9,205 cases are inactive or beyond the infectious period, according to Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health, meaning 220 cases are active.
The county has averaged about nine 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 8.5 is up from a low of just under seven new cases per day in mid-March and down from a recent high of 71 cases per day in early January.
Douglas County has a 14-day COVID-19 incidence rate of 98.93 per 100,000 people and a test positivity rate of 2.9%. Five patients at Lawrence’s hospital had COVID-19 on Friday, one more than Wednesday. To date, 87 Douglas County residents have died from COVID-19.
