Kansas COVID vaccination rates remain low, rank 49th of 50 states in CDC report
The COVID-19 vaccine roll-out continues to be slow in Kansas.
Data released Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed Kansas with the second-worst rate of doses administered per capita. Ahead of only Alabama, the CDC’s rate for Kansas was 10,404 doses administered per 100,000 people, according to CDC data as of 5 a.m. Monday.
The CDC’s vaccine tracker showed 303,094 doses have been administered out of 492,250 delivered to Kansas.
However, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment on Monday reported more doses administered and fewer delivered. Kansas is up to 303,691 doses administered out of 413,350 total doses distributed to the state, according to the KDHE. Statewide, 25,246 doses were administered over the weekend.
About 8% of the population, or 233,492 people, have received the first shot, according to the KDHE. But only about 2.4%, or 70,199 people, have had a second shot and are fully inoculated.
State health officials have said the number of doses administered is believed to be higher than reported as vaccination sites have emphasized getting shots in arms over sending timely documentation to local, state and federal government agencies.
Dr. Lee Norman, the KDHE secretary, said late last month that data on vaccine administration, especially in the federal database, “lags behind reality.”
“There’s one problem with the vaccine, and that is there’s too little of it,” Norman said.
Sen. Jerry Moran said two weeks ago that “it bothered me” when, in early January, Kansas was reported to be last in the United States for administering the vaccine.
“That makes sense to me,” Moran said, with a shrug, of the reporting lag explanation. “Although the question I had is why is Kansas last, if it’s a problem of filling out the report and submitting it, wouldn’t other states be in the same circumstance we are?
“It’s one of those things that we’re sorting through. I want to give people the benefit of the doubt. I’m sure that record-keeping is a part of it. It always is. But it’s not, shouldn’t, wouldn’t be just a problem for Kansas.”
The Sedgwick County Health Department has administered 23,402 doses as of Monday’s report. That number does not include vaccinations by other providers in the county, such as hospitals and nursing homes.
Coronavirus numbers
The Sedgwick County Health Department hospital status remains “cautious” in Wichita. No ICU beds are available at either Wesley Medical Center or Ascension Via Christi St. Francis, according to the health department.
The number of currently-hospitalized COVID-19 patients dropped to 126, down 22 from last week’s report. The ICUs have 45 COVID-19 patients, which is down one from a week ago.
The KDHE has reported coronavirus pandemic totals of 51,836 cases, 1,280 hospitalizations, 366 ICU admissions and 597 deaths in Sedgwick County. Over the weekend, Sedgwick County had 318 new cases, 10 new hospitalizations, four new ICU admissions and 17 new deaths reported.
Statewide, the KDHE has reported totals of 282,960 cases, 8,749 hospitalizations, 2,373 ICU admissions and 4,197 deaths. Over the weekend, Kansas had 1,398 new cases, 69 new hospitalizations, 12 new ICU admissions and 96 new deaths reported.
Trends related to two main school gating metrics — the positive test rate and the rate of new cases — continued to improve.
In Sedgwick County, the rate of new cases was 173 per 100,000 people last week. That was down from 315 the prior week. The statewide number dropped from 224 to 144 per 100,000. Despite the improvement, the numbers remain in the red zone of the White House COVID-19 Task Force’s standards, which starts at 101 new cases per 100,000 people.
State officials caution that data for the two most recent weeks may be incomplete due to lagging test results, and therefor the case rate may rise in updated reports.
Statewide, the weekly positive test rate improved from 6.29% to 5.96%. In Sedgwick County, the improvement was from 8.61% to 7.02%. The most-recent numbers are in the White House’s yellow zone, which ranges from 5% to 7.9%.