Sedgwick County has the worst COVID vaccination rate in Kansas, new CDC data show

Newly-released COVID-19 vaccine data show Sedgwick County has the worst vaccination rate in Kansas.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday started releasing county-level data on the percentage of population that is fully vaccinated against the coronavirus disease.

Out of the 105 counties in Kansas, Sedgwick County had the worst rate, at 9.3% of the population fully vaccinated.

Kansas Department of Health and Environment vaccination data also show Sedgwick County apparently under-performing compared to the rest of the state. The KDHE’s data, based on the rate of population with at least one dose, has Sedgwick County tied for the 10th-worst in the state.

The causes of Sedgwick County’s comparatively low vaccine statistics are unclear — as are the degree to which local and state public health officials can improve the numbers and how much the county’s poor rates bring down the state’s overall numbers.

Neither the Sedgwick County Health Department nor the KDHE answered questions from The Eagle about Sedgwick County’s low vaccination rate more than a week after spokespersons for the two government agencies received the requests.

The only apparent attempt at an explanation from government officials comes from a note below the KDHE’s map.

“Since county population demographics including age and industry vary greatly across the state, county vaccination rate variance is expected during early phases,” the note reads.

Starting Monday, Kansas will be in the final phase of the vaccination roll-out plan. All people who live or work in Kansas and are at least 16 years old are eligible for a COVID vaccine.

County data

The CDC’s county-level COVID vaccine data as of Sunday showed that in Sedgwick County, 9.3% of the entire population has been fully vaccinated, which is the worst of any county in the state. That is compared to 12.4% of the adult population, which is also the worst percentage in Kansas, and 32.3% of the senior citizen population, which is the second-worst.

The state’s best rates for fully-vaccinated people, according to CDC data, are Gove County with 30% of its entire population, Greeley County with 40.8% of its adult population, and Riley County with 72.2% of its senior citizen population, defined as people 65 and older.

Rural counties in general appear to have higher vaccination rates than urban counties, but it is not the only factor. As the state’s most populous county, Johnson County has vaccination rates approximately double that of Sedgwick County, which is the second most populous.

The CDC reported Johnson County’s full vaccination rates at 18.8% of the entire population, 24.7% of the adult population and 60.5% of the senior citizen population, making it one of the better-performing counties in the state.

As of Friday, the KDHE’s data showed 209 per 1,000 people in Sedgwick County had been vaccinated with at least one dose. That tied for the 10th-worst rate in all of Kansas and was the worst in south-central Kansas.

The ranking is an improvement since The Eagle first sought comment from public health officials, when Sedgwick County was fifth-worst in the state.

The KDHE’s most-recent numbers show Sedgwick County has rough 107,853 people who have gotten at least one dose. The CDC reports 47,781 people in Sedgwick County have been fully vaccinated.

State data

The CDC’s state-level pandemic tracker as of Sunday showed 16.2% of people in Kansas have been fully vaccinated, which ranks as 24th out of 50 states.

State-level data also shows Kansas currently ranks 28th for the percent of total population with at least one dose, at 29.1%.

Kansas ranks 34th for total vaccine doses administered per capita, at 42,903 doses per 100,000 people. While Kansas ranks in the bottom half of states in vaccine administration, it has steadily improved since late December, when nationwide statistics showed Kansas as the worst in the country.

The CDC’s data show higher vaccination rates in Kansas than the latest KDHE numbers. The KDHE on Friday reported 25.9% of the population had got at least one COVID shot while 13.3% had been fully inoculated.

Doses on hand

Earlier this month, KDHE Secretary Dr. Lee Norman said the health department had investigated the gap between doses delivered and doses administered by the state.

Norman said about one-third of the data gap was due to “data glitches” of doses that had already been put in people’s arms. The other two-thirds was mostly first doses waiting to be administered.

“We have been rather directive about not having inventory sitting on shelves,” he said.

The state delivers doses on a weekly basis, and the KDHE’s provider manual directs that: “Providers should aim to exhaust their full weekly supply of vaccine.”

That apparently is not happening in Sedgwick County, where local officials on Thursday said the county health department had enough supply on hand for about two weeks of vaccinations.

“I don’t want anybody to think that we’re sitting on vaccines,” deputy county manager Tim Kaufman said. “We do have about a two weeks supply, so roughly 40,000 vaccines.”

Kaufman said about half of those are second doses already committed to people who had their first shots. The other half are first doses.

“Our amount of vaccine on hand is actually lower than it’s been for quite some time,” county manager Tom Stolz said. “We always try to maintain a week to two weeks of doses.”

If the county health department only had one week’s worth of doses on hand and had already administered the other week’s worth of doses, the county’s and state’s vaccination rankings would improve.

Having an additional 10,000 first doses administered would increase the county’s rate to about 228 per 1,000 people. That would improve the county’s KDHE ranking of first doses administered per capita from No. 95 of 105 to No. 84.

Administering a one-week’s supply of 10,000 additional second doses would improve the county’s fully vaccinated percentage from 9.3% to 11.2%. That would move the CDC’s ranking of Sedgwick County from worst in Kansas to sixth-worst.

The combined 20,000 doses would improve the state’s rate to nearly 43,600 doses administered per 100,000 people. That would push Kansas’s nationwide ranking from 34th to 31st for total doses administered per capita.

This story was originally published March 28, 2021 at 4:18 PM.