More than 10% of Kansans have now received a first dose of a COVID vaccine

More than 10% of Kansans have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Kansas has received 581,975 doses, of which 418,653 have been reported as administered as of Wednesday, Kansas Department of Health and Environment data show.

About 10.4% of the population has gotten their first shot, or 303,677 people, which was an increase of 11,953 since Monday. Second shots have been given to 114,976 of those people, or 3.9% of the population, which was an increase of 12,177 doses.

The Sedgwick County Health Department reported 2,100 first doses and 735 second doses were administered on Monday and Tuesday. The health department has now given 33,200 doses. That number does not include shots given by other providers in the area, such as Wichita hospitals and nursing homes.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data from Wednesday ranks Kansas third-from-last for total doses administered per capita, ahead of only Georgia and Alabama.

State health officials say they know more doses have been administered, but delays in reporting continue to dampen the numbers. The deep cold has also delayed shipments of vaccine by about two days, KDHE Secretary Dr. Lee Norman said during a Tuesday media briefing hosted by the University of Kansas Health System.

Norman said the state’s vaccine allocation has doubled, from about 45,000 doses per week at the start of the month to about 90,000 doses expected this week.

Continued vaccinations have been emphasized as epidemiologists watch for new variant cases. Kansas has had two cases of the variant that was first identified in the United Kingdom. The more recent case was a “young man” from Sedgwick County who had traveled out of state, Norman said.

“We are getting the feeling that it will become a dominant strain because it is more infectious,” Norman said. “People really can’t let their guard down. ... I’m sure there’s going to be pockets of spread within local regions.”

Trends for COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths continue to improve statewide.

Kansas has had totals during the coronavirus pandemic of 288,717 cases, 9,002 hospitalizations, 2,432 ICU admissions and 4,521 deaths. Between Monday and Wednesday, the KDHE reported 1,267 new cases, 79 new hospitalizations, 11 new ICU admissions and 115 new deaths.

In Sedgwick County, the KDHE has reported totals of 52,832 cases, 1,351 hospitalizations, 391 ICU admissions and 659 deaths. Wednesday’s report had 199 new cases, 22 new hospitalizations, seven new ICU admissions and 24 new deaths.

Wednesday’s weekly cluster update from the KDHE showed 10 new outbreaks plus 43 more deaths from new and existing outbreaks. Kansas has now had 1,812 total clusters with 1,894 deaths. The 639 clusters at long-term care facilities account for 93% of the cluster deaths.

The number of active clusters continues to drop, as the 210 active clusters as of Wednesday was a decrease of 42 from a week ago. Thirteen of the active outbreaks were named on a KDHE list. The only Sedgwick County location on the list was Wichita’s Ponca Products.

There could be additional outbreaks in the Wichita area, as the KDHE identified only a fraction of all the locations with an active outbreak of COVID-19.

The Sedgwick County Health Department did not report any new clusters in the past week.

This story was originally published February 17, 2021 at 2:57 PM.