Front-line health care workers were the first to get the new Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday at the University of Kansas Health System, and Gov. Laura Kelly said that the state is continuing to develop the long-term vaccination plans for the public.
At KU Health System, the first person to get the vaccine was Mary Ann Copeland, a respiratory therapist who works with patients in a COVID-19 unit every day.
“I’m getting it for all of my family and friends, just everybody I come in contact with, just the public,” Copeland said. “I think it’s a game-changer. I hope more people will get the shot, and we can just go from there and see how everything works out.”
By late spring or early summer, the public should be able to receive the vaccine, the governor said.
“I am relieved that we are really truly turning the corner now on this virus,” Gov. Kelly said Tuesday during a news conference at the KU Health System.
As more people get vaccinated, they should see the number of cases going down in a number of months, with the ability to really reopen businesses and get kids back to classrooms, she said.
Wider vaccine distribution will continue through the state of Kansas this week, she said.
She said 49,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine are expected to be sent to Kansas next week.
Front-line health care workers are the first in line, she said. Also receiving vaccines in the first phase are long-term care workers and residents.
Internal and external advisory groups are working now to determine how to sequence the rest of the vaccinations, she said. They need to reach essential workers, the elderly population and people with comorbidities, she said. Determining the order of who will receive shots next should be done by the end of this week, she added.
Dr. Lee Norman, secretary of health, said they are seeing a leveling off a little of the numbers in hospitals recently, but they had over 4,000 new cases and 37 new deaths on Monday in the state and still have a lot of work to do. Part of that work is with the new vaccine, he added.
The vaccine had arrived at two of the state’s hubs by Tuesday morning and was expected to arrive at the other three later Tuesday. The hubs will push out the vaccine to other parts of the state, he added.
Besides hospitals, places that might receive the vaccines include health departments, pharmacies and local EMS units, he said.
The guidance for who gets it will be various essential people in the first month. It will take some months to distribute to all the people who are in the various priority groups, he added.
They will roll out the rest of the priority list soon, he said, and they want to keep in compliance with the CDC guidance and the Advisory Council on Immunization Practices.
Dr. Norman said they are rapidly ramping up the amount of testing they are doing. They brought on 23 new testing sites in the past 10 days, with 15 more coming on this week, he said. The Stop the Spread campaign and “Go Get Tested” website will help people find test sites at no cost, he said.
He said he hoped with the December holidays people would show restraint, wear masks and socially distance.
“We have been playing defense for the last 10 months, and now we are going on offense, and that feels good,” Dr. Steve Stites, chief medical officer at KU Health System, said.
Gov. Kelly said it will probably take a month or so to take care of the front-line health care workers, along with the long-term care residents.
Then when vaccine doses allow, they will move to the essential worker category, she said. They will probably get to that second group in January, depending on the supply of vaccine, she said.
Then she expects to move from essential workers to the over 65 population, along with people with underlying conditions that put them at high risk, she said. That would take them to the spring, and in late spring to early summer, they would give the vaccine to the general population.
Currently, there are no vaccines allowed for children under 16. That may eventually change, and once they have a vaccine approved for children, they would be included, she said.
Dr. Norman said a lot of people were registering to be vaccinators, including pharmacies, hospitals, clinics, or others.
Dr. Norman also said Kansas is not planning to have a bckup supply of vaccines, as there are not enough vaccines at first and they would like to use them as fast as possible in the state.
There are just 150,000 doses of the vaccine arriving in Kansas by the end of the month, meaning that the state is far from having herd immunity, Dr. Norman said. He added people cannot let their guard down until there is a much higher number of people immunized. They should continue with wearing masks, social distancing and washing hands.
KU Health System reported 87 active COVID-19 patients Tuesday in the hospital, an increase from 82 on Monday, according to Dr. Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control. There were 55 patients in the intensive care unit, a jump from 37 on Monday, and 26 of them were on ventilators, an increase from 24 on Monday.
There were an additional 78 patients still in the hospital but not in the acute infection phase, an increase from 76 on Monday. The total was 165 COVID-19 patients at KU Health System.
HaysMed reported 30 COVID-19 inpatients, an increase from 26 on Monday. Twenty-six are active inpatients while four were in the recovery phase.
The overall trend was lower since last week, but COVID-19 patients still were using a lot of the hospital’s capacity and bed space, according to the doctors.
Case numbers
Wyandotte County reported a cumulative 12,752 COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, an increase of 35 since Monday. There were no additional deaths reported, with the cumulative total the same as Monday, at 184.
Kansas reported an additional 4,724 COVID-19 cases from Friday to Monday, with a cumulative total of 190,018, according to figures from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. There were an additional 37 deaths statewide, for a cumulative total of 2,109.
The Mid-America Regional Council Kansas City Region COVID-19 data hub reported an additional 902 cases in the nine-county Kansas City region, for a cumulative total of 107,569. There were a cumulative 1,265 deaths reported. The average number of new hospitalizations was 186, down from Monday.
Johns Hopkins University’s COVID-19 dashboard reported 16,716,777 COVID-19 cases in the United States on Tuesday, and 303,773 cumulative deaths.
Free COVID-19 testing available Wednesday
Free COVID-19 testing is available from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 16, at Faith Deliverance Family Worship Center, 3043 State Ave., Kansas City, Kansas.
The tests are through the Wyandotte County Health Equity Task Force and Vibrant Health.
The Unified Government Health Department has moved its COVID-19 testing from the 6th and Ann location to the former Kmart at 78th and State Avenue in Kansas City, Kansas. The hours are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Tests are free for those who live or work in Wyandotte County. The tests are nasopharyngeal swab tests. The Health Department no longer uses saliva tests.
The tests now are open to asymptomatic people as well as those who have symptoms or have been exposed to COVID-19. Check with the UG Health Department’s Facebook page to see if there have been any changes in the schedule. Bring something that shows that you live or work in Wyandotte County, such as a utility bill.
Additional 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.
The KU doctors’ news conference is online at https://www.facebook.com/kuhospital/videos/389806988944031.
For more information about the testing site at the former Kmart location, visit https://alpha.wycokck.org/files/assets/public/health/documents/covid/10092020_newtestingsitewyco.pdf.
The KDHE vaccine report is at https://www.coronavirus.kdheks.gov/DocumentCenter/View/1664/COVID-19-Vaccine-Updates-1292020-.
Cards and letters of encouragement for caregivers at KU Health System may be sent to Share Joy, care of Patient Relations, 4000 Cambridge St., Mailstop 1021, Kansas City, Kansas, 66160. Emails can be sent to [email protected].
Wyandotte County is under a mandatory mask and social distancing order. Also, the Wyandotte County health order with a limit of 10 persons to a gathering, and a closing time of 10 p.m. for restaurants and bars, with other new restrictions, is at https://alpha.wycokck.org/files/assets/public/health/documents/covid/11162020localhealthorderexecuted.pdf.
The UG COVID-19 webpage is at https://alpha.wycokck.org/Coronavirus-COVID-19-Information.
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 CDC’s COVID-19 webpage is at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/index.html.