photo of: Associated press
A nurse administers a vaccine against COVID-19 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 can now complete a form to indicate their level of interest in receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, what phase they believe they meet the requirements for and how they would like to be notified when vaccines are available. .
The form can be completed online at dgcoks.org/vaccineinterestform.
Completing the survey will not create an appointment or reserve any vaccines, according to a press release from the health department on Friday, but will help planners streamline the notification and scheduling process, identifying at what stage they meet the conditions.
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 is currently planning a Phase 2 vaccination clinic for Jan. 29 for people 65 and older, but the 500 appointments were filled within 25 minutes of the alert coming out. When the county announced an additional 460 appointments for Jan. 29, those seats were filled in 13 minutes.
“With an extremely limited supply of vaccine right now, we realize it’s frustrating for people who haven’t been able to schedule appointments for them or their loved ones,” said business systems analyst Charlie Bryan. president of the Vaccination Planning Unit Unified Order. “This new form will help us identify for which phase people are classified so that we can communicate effectively with the doses available for their priority group. We believe this will help advance the notification process.”
Anyone who needs 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 upon receipt of calls.
County finds 27 new cases
Douglas County reported 7,818 cases of COVID-19 as of Friday, an increase of 27 cases since Thursday.
In Douglas County, 6,816 of the 7,818 cases are inactive or exceed the infectious period, according to Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health, meaning 1,002 cases are active.
The county has averaged about 46 new cases a day over the past 14 days, according to a 14-day moving average chart updated on weekdays by the health department. The current average of 46.14 new cases a day has dropped from a maximum of 80 cases a day in mid-November to a recent low of about 45 cases a 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 were administered to LMH Health, Heartland, the health department, the Haskell Indian Health Center and long-term care centers. This week 4,644 doses had been administered through these 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.