Doctors say vaccine protects against COVID-19 and variants

Although some hospitals in parts of central and southern Missouri are filling up with COVID-19 patients, doctors believe a lot of those illnesses might be prevented with more people getting COVID-19 vaccinations.

At a Tuesday morning media update at the University of Kansas Health System, Dr. Dana Hawkinson, director of infection prevention and control, said the hospital has received some calls asking to transfer patients from the Springfield, Missouri, area to KU Health System. Springfield hospitals were experiencing a large increase in COVID-19 cases during the holiday.

Dr. Hawkinson said KU Health System’s COVID-19 patient numbers had increased to 22 active patients on Tuesday morning, with seven in the intensive care unit and two on ventilators.

He said 85 percent of the COVID-19 patients in the ICU at KU Health System were unvaccinated, and about 75 percent of the COVID-19 patients on regular floors were not vaccinated. Some of those who were vaccinated and had COVID-19 were in the hospital for other reasons, such as heart surgery. Some of the positive COVID-19 patients on the regular floors do not have symptoms. All the patients who come into the hospital have a COVID-19 test.

“The real theme to this story is get vaccinated,” Dr. Hawkinson said. “If you get vaccinated, your risk of going to the hospital is significantly less than if not vaccinated.”

He said probably the new cases are the Delta variant. There have been lessened restrictions, along with people gathering together more for a few weeks, he said.

The Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson vaccines are all working to provide good protection against COVID-19 and the Delta variant, he said.

Just because people get the vaccine doesn’t mean they will not get COVID-19 or the variant. But it means that most people who are vaccinated may have a slight case of it instead of a severe illness with it, according to Dr. Hawkinson.

At the morning media update, doctors also discussed weight gain during the pandemic. Some ideas presented for losing weight included keeping a food journal and celebrating small improvements. People also might want to take a walk, and do meditation and deep breathing exercises instead of eating snacks, according to the doctors. For more information about losing pandemic weight, visit the video at www.facebook.com/kuhospital/videos/1235417826871800.

Free COVID-19 vaccines available

The Unified Government Health Department’s central vaccine location at the former Kmart store, 7836 State Ave., Kansas City, Kansas, will be open to those age 12 and older from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday, July 7. Walk-ins will be accepted. For more information, see WycoVaccines.org.

Hours the week of July 5:

• Kmart site (7836 State Ave, Kansas City, Kansas)
o Wednesday through Friday, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. – vaccine and testing incentives available.
• Closed: Armory site (100 S. 20th St, Kansas City, Kansas
Mobile vaccines can still be requested online at WycoVaccines.org or by calling 3-1-1 (913-573-5311).

Other sites available for vaccinations

Vaccinations at KU Health System are open to the public. Current patients may use MyChart to make an appointment. Others may call 913-588-1227 or visit kansashealthsystem.com/vaccine to make an appointment to get vaccinated. KU Health System currently is vaccinating residents of Kansas and Missouri who are 12 or older, by appointment only. Those under 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian throughout the appointment.

There are also pharmacies giving free COVID-19 vaccinations in Wyandotte County by appointment, when available. These include Price Chopper and Hen House pharmacies, which are now also accepting walk-in vaccinations or appointments, and are starting vaccinations for age 12 and up at those pharmacies that are giving Pfizer vaccine (see https://www.ballsfoodspharmacy.com/).

CVS has announced walk-in appointments for COVID-19 vaccine at some of its stores. Those interested in getting a vaccination at a CVS pharmacy are asked to visit a CVS website in order to make sure there is vaccine available. The website is at www.cvs.com/. Walgreens and Walmart also were listed on www.vaccines.gov as giving vaccinations.

Other pharmacies and sites giving vaccines are listed at www.vaccines.gov. The website also tells whether vaccines are in stock at the locations.

Case numbers reported

There were 22 active COVID-19 patients on Tuesday morning at the University of Kansas Health System, an increase of 12 from Friday, according to Dr. Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control. Seven patients were in the intensive care unit, an increase of three from Friday. Two of those patients were on ventilators.

Wyandotte County reported an increase of 70 COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, July 6, since Friday, for a cumulative 19,185 cases, according to the Unified Government Health Department’s COVID-19 webpage. There was a cumulative total of 299 deaths reported, no change.

The Mid-America Regional Council’s COVID-19 dashboard reported 177,882 cumulative COVID-19 cases on Tuesday in the Kansas City region. The daily average of new hospitalizations was 62.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment reported 318,515 cumulative COVID-19 cases in Kansas on Friday, July 2. There was a total of 5,159 cumulative deaths reported statewide.

The Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 dashboard on Tuesday night reported 33,746,452 COVID-19 cases in the United States, with 605,905 total deaths reported nationwide. There were 5,528 new cases nationwide and 41 new deaths nationwide.
States with high numbers of new cases were Arkansas, 1,246; Missouri, 1,002; South Carolina, 700; California, 651; and Texas, 537.
Countries with high numbers of new cases were India, 34,703; Spain, 32,607; Indonesia, 29,745; United Kingdom, 27,106; and U.S., 5,528, according to Johns Hopkins information.

Free testing available

Free COVID-19 testing is available from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at Vibrant Health Cordell D. Meeks Jr. Clinic, formerly Children’s Mercy West, 4313 State Ave., Kansas City, Kansas. Appointments are not needed.
The Unified Government Health Department central location, the former Kmart building, will be open for COVID-19 testing from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday.

Besides Health Department sites, free COVID-19 testing is available at several locations in Wyandotte County.

Visit gogettested.com/Kansas and https://wyandotte-county-covid-19-hub-unifiedgov.hub.arcgis.com/pages/what-to-do-if-you-think-you-have-covid-19 for more sites.

Wyandotte County residents may contact the Health Department at wycohelp.org to sign up for a test to be delivered to their home.

For more details about free COVID-19 testing offered by the UG Health Department, visit https://wyandotte-county-covid-19-hub-unifiedgov.hub.arcgis.com/pages/what-to-do-if-you-think-you-have-covid-19, https://www.facebook.com/UGHealthDept or call 3-1-1.

The Health Department’s general contact page is at https://www.wycokck.org/Health/Contact.aspx. The department’s Facebook page is at https://www.facebook.com/UGHealthDept.

Testing sites are at https://wyandotte-county-covid-19-hub-unifiedgov.hub.arcgis.com/pages/what-to-do-if-you-think-you-have-covid-19. There are more test sites listed on this page.

Saliva testing is now offered at the UG Health Department. For more information, visit https://alpha.wycokck.org/files/assets/public/health/documents/covid/02042021-ugphd-saliva-testing-available.pdf.

The University of Kansas Health System morning media update is online at https://www.facebook.com/kuhospital/videos/1235417826871800.

The University of Kansas Health System COVID-19 update page is at https://www.facebook.com/kuhospital/videos/330310795391910.

A vaccine report for the state of Kansas is at
https://www.kansasvaccine.gov/DocumentCenter/View/123/Vaccine-Historical-Document-22521?bidId=.

The KDHE’s COVID-19 webpage is at https://www.coronavirus.kdheks.gov/.

The KC Region COVID-19 Hub dashboard is at https://marc2.org/covidhub/.

The Wyandotte County page on the Johns Hopkins COVID-19 website is at https://bao.arcgis.com/covid-19/jhu/county/20209.html.

The Johns Hopkins Data in Motion, a presentation on critical COVID-19 data in the past 24 hours, is at https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/covid-19-daily-video.