Douglas County Releases COVID-19 Vaccine Interest Form to Help Plan Efforts | News, Sports, Jobs



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photo by: Associated press

A nurse administers a COVID-19 vaccination at a distribution center on Thursday, January 21, 2021, at the North Side Baptist Church in Weatherford, Texas. (Yffy Yossifor / Star-Telegram via AP)

Residents of Douglas County can now fill out a form to indicate their level of interest in receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, what stage they think they are eligible for and how they would like to be notified when vaccines become available.

The form can be completed online at dgcoks.org/vaccineinterestform.

Responding to the survey won’t create an appointment or reserve a vaccine, a Health Ministry press release said on Friday, but it will help planners streamline the notification and planning process by identifying when phase people qualify.

The health department’s announcement comes after some residents expressed concern that the phase 2 vaccine registration process was competitive and unfair. Douglas County currently has a Phase 2 vaccination clinic scheduled for Jan. 29 for people 65 and older, but all 500 appointments were filled within 25 minutes of the alert being raised. When the county announced 460 additional appointment hours for Jan. 29, those positions were filled in 13 minutes.

“With an extremely limited supply of vaccines at the moment, we realize that it is frustrating for people who have not been able to make an appointment for themselves or for their loved ones,” said said Charlie Bryan, business systems analyst, chairman of the Unified Command immunization planning unit. “This new form will help us identify what phase people would qualify at so that we can communicate effectively with them as doses become available for their priority group. We believe this will make the notification process easier in the future. “

All residents who need help filling out the form can contact the Seniors Resource Center at 785-842-0543 and leave a message. Staff will return calls during business hours in the order they are received.

County notes 27 new cases

Douglas County reported 7,818 cases of COVID-19 on Friday, an increase of 27 cases since Thursday.

In Douglas County, 6,816 of the 7,818 cases are inactive or beyond the infectious period, according to Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health, which means 1,002 cases are active.

The county has averaged about 46 new cases per day over the past 14 days, according to a 14-day moving average chart updated on weekdays by the health department. The current average of 46.14 new cases per day is down from the high of 80 cases per day in mid-November and up from the recent low of around 45 cases per day in mid-December.

Douglas County has a 14-day COVID-19 incidence rate of 537.04 per 100,000 population. As of Friday, 4,129 doses of COVID-19 vaccines had been administered at LMH Health, Heartland, Department of Health, Haskell Indian Health Center and long-term care facilities. This week, 4,644 doses had been administered by these same establishments. So far, Douglas County has received 11,239 doses of the vaccine.

Twelve patients at Lawrence Hospital had COVID-19 on Friday, two fewer than Thursday. To date, 36 residents of Douglas County have died from COVID-19.



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