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Category: COVID-19
New Wyco Connect program links residents to COVID-19 community resources
With vaccine rates lagging and the COVID-19 virus still haunting the community, the Unified Government Health Department and the Community Health Council of Wyandotte County have combined their forces and missions to help slow the spread of the virus in the community.
They have created the WyCo Connect initiative to address critical issues of the community.
This initiative brought on and trained 17 new community health workers directly from historically marginalized communities in Kansas City, Kansas, and Wyandotte County.
The initiative supports racial and ethnic groups affected by COVID and various health inequities such as African American, Latinx and Hispanic, refugee, and immigrant communities as well as people living in 66101, 66102, 66104, and 66105 zip codes.
WyCo Connect will have these community health workers helping in the community until the end of 2022, allowing time for people to receive COVID-related assistance as well as access to the vaccine and the available resources.
WyCo Connect community resources
These community health workers are designated to a variety of tasks in an effort to reduce the burden of the virus on Wyandotte County, especially on people from historically oppressed communities, according to a Health Department spokesman. They will assess their needs as well as their access to COVID-19 specific health care and resources. Community health worker tasks include, but are not limited to:
● Educating and connecting individuals from targeted communities on several COVID-19 issues like the vaccine, testing and address personal and communal hesitancies about vaccine and its benefits
● Connecting individuals to free COVID-19 related resources, such as:
○ COVID-19 testing and vaccines at community locations or delivered to people’s homes
○ Quarantine housing for people who have been exposed to COVID-19 or who have tested positive. ■ This resource includes meals and cleaning services.
○ Food assistance for people who are in quarantine or who have reduced food access due to COVID-19.
○ Transportation to access COVID-19 vaccines and testing for anyone who lives in Wyandotte County
■ Free rides to other social services are available to zip codes 66101, 66102, 66104 and 66105. Funding for this resource is provided by Health Forward Foundation.
○ Assisting with health navigation like finding a primary doctor or safety-net clinic.
● Receive, interpret, and utilize feedback to address ways the Health Department and WyCo Connect can increase equity in vaccine campaigns and dismantle barriers people may face accessing the vaccine, testing and other COVID related programs and services
● Most important, address the residents’ physical, mental, social, and economic needs and access to COVID-19 specific healthcare opportunities and resources.
Everyone living in Wyandotte County can access the COVID resources listed for free by calling 3-1-1 (913-573-5311) or by filling out online request forms available at ughealth.info/WycoConnect.
Effects of COVID-19 on the community
Throughout the pandemic, COVID-19 rate of positivity and death totals have substantially been higher in Wyandotte County as compared to other local jurisdictions, a Health Department spokesman stated.
Wyandotte County has experienced inequalities which have impacted the vaccination rates among communities of color and target populations. The county’s vaccination rate has improved significantly through the course of 2021, but at just over 50%, still lags behind the vaccination rate for the U.S. and is not at a level of herd immunity.
Lower vaccination rates can be attributed to countless barriers and accessibilities impacting target populations, such as health care, language, transportation, income constraints, housing instability, and an overall mistrust of medical and governmental institutions, according to the Health Department spokesman. This is why WyCo Connect is focused more heavily on specific communities and zip codes that have faced more of these barriers and health inequities, both during and long before the pandemic, according to the spokesman.
Find WyCo Connect resources at: ughealth.info/WycoConnect.
- Information from UG Health Department
Kansas public universities caught in federal, state crossfire on COVID-19 vaccine mandate
Biden’s order compels inoculation of contractors; Kansas law may tie up funding
by Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector
Topeka — The president of the Kansas Board of Regents offered recommendations Friday to state universities receiving federal funding that must comply with a U.S. government mandate on COVID-19 vaccination of government contractors, including grant recipients, and adhere to a Kansas law withholding state funding from universities imposing inoculation directives.
Blake Flanders, who serves as president of the board responsible for public universities, community colleges and technical colleges, said each institution should consider implementing a process to comply with federal directives covering COVID-19 vaccines for contractor employees. In addition, the federal order would require masking and physical distancing in contractor workplaces, including visitors and students, in accordance with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.
President Joe Biden issued the executive order in September requiring all covered employees to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19. He adopted a limited exemption if an employee was legally entitled to an accommodation. For existing contracts, covered contractor employees must be fully vaccinated no later than Dec. 8.
The issue comes to a head in Kansas because the University of Kansas, Kansas State University and Wichita State University receive millions of dollars annually in federal financial support for researcher under contract. The universities face deadlines for signing contracts and agreements tied to federal aid.
The state Board of Regents, which is appointed by the governor, hasn’t established a formal policy. The board isn’t scheduled to meet again until November.
“These were guidelines from me to the universities,” Flanders said in an interview. “The universities are seeking ways they can still meet the requirements of state law and continue with these federal contracts.”
The six state universities in Kansas have hundreds of contracts with federal agencies, such as NASA, the Department of Justice, Department of Defense, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Energy, Department of Education and the National Science Foundation. There are subcontracts with large private companies that act as federal contractors. These contracts and subcontracts provide hundreds of millions of dollars to Kansas higher education and to the state of Kansas.
The Biden mandate must be incorporated into contracts awarded prior to Oct. 15 whenever that contract option or extension occurred. Through Nov. 14, federal agencies were to voluntarily include the COVID-19 clause into new contracts. Contracts set after Nov. 14 must feature the vaccination and other pandemic-related directives.
Flanders said the state universities in Kansas should draw from money outside the state budget to comply with the federal directive. That’s because Senate Bill 159, approved by the Kansas Legislature, prohibits state agencies from using money appropriated by the state to “require an individual to use a COVID-19 vaccination passport within this state for any purpose.”
Doug Girod, chancellor at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, said that KU would direct all KU employees to submit proof of a full vaccination for COVID-19 by Dec. 8.
“Because of the scope of the federal order, this mandate applies to all KU employees – including student employees – on all campuses and in all KU affiliates and auxiliaries, unless an employee applies for and receives a religious or medical exemption,” Girod said. “Employees who do not comply with the vaccine requirement are subject to disciplinary action up to and including termination from employment.”
He said federal contracts that funded research, employment and educational efforts were at risk if KU didn’t align with Biden’s executive order. He recommended unvaccinated employees seek their first vaccine dose immediately, because the process could take up to six weeks.
“For this reason,” the chancellor said, “we cannot be flexible with employees who choose not to comply with the vaccine requirement.”
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