Vaccinations a part of battle against COVID-19 in Cloud County

While testing, tracing and continuing to follow the safety guidelines that have been recommended remain critical in the 11-month battle with the COVID-19 pandemic, much of the attention has now turned to the rollout of the vaccines being produced to combat the virus.
Kansas Governor Laura Kelly implemented a vaccine distribution order for population groups in Kansas. The vaccine is being administered in five phases.
The phase groups were established with guidance from state and national public health experts and input from the Kansas Coronavirus Vaccine Advisory Council.
Phase 1 of the vaccination plan included health care workers, residents or patients in long-term care facilities and senior housing and workers critical to pandemic response continuity.
Cloud County Health Center administered 77 doses of the Moderna vaccine to health care associated workers who are part of phase 1. Those are the first of the two doses that are needed.
“We felt like we had gotten through a majority of the list that we had, or all of the list that we had, in those 77 doses we had gotten,” Cloud County Health Department administrator Brandi Bray said.
Cloud County Health Center administered 88 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech. It also received 20 doses of the Moderna vaccine to finish up vaccinating health care associated workers that were still wanting to be vaccinated.
The Cloud County Health Center employees have received their second dose of the vaccine.
Phase 2 of the state’s plan includes persons aged 65 and over; high-contact critical workers necessary to maintain systems, assets and activities vital to the state security, the economy or public health or who interact with large numbers of contacts and job-related COVID-19 exposure. COVID-19 risk is associated with the likelihood of being infected oneself or spreading the virus. Factors that increase risks include proximity, type of contact, duration of contacts and challenges to implement protective measures. This includes firefighters, police officers, first responders and correction officers; K-12 and childcare workers, including teachers, custodians, drivers and other staff; food processing, including meat processing plants; large-scale aviation manufacturing plants; workers in retail, agriculture, supply of critical service or materials for COVID-19, the U.S. Postal Service and Department of Motor Vehicles; those living or working in licensed congregate setting and other special care or congregate environments where social distancing is not possible including homeless shelters, congregate childcare institutions, emergency shelters or safe houses, corrections facilities and behavioral health institutions.
Bray said that she expects Phase 2 of the vaccine rollout to begin by January 21. That is a week earlier than was expected.
Education facilities are compiling lists of those employees who want to be vaccinated to be submitted to the health department.
The health department is also compiling a list of people who want the vaccine. It will be prioritized by age and health condition.
Anybody can contact the health department to have their name put on the list to be vaccinated based on the phases established by the state.
“We are sorting the list as we go. We would like to have an accurate number for all of the phases,” Bray said.
Bray said that she initially was somewhat disappointed in the number of health care associated workers who did not want the vaccine.
“There are a lot of people who don’t trust the fact that it came out so quickly. However, all of those people who have been working on this vaccine trained for years and years and years. We trust cardiologists. We trust all of the other specialists, why not trust the vaccine, the virologists,” Bray said. “Getting the vaccine is possibly the first thing we can do to get back to normal.”
While reports are showing that Kansas is lagging behind many other states in getting the vaccine distributed, Bray said that she has been pleased with the cooperation from the state officials.
“I don’t have a problem with the state. They are a great resource. Any time I reach out to them I get answers. They help me out with whatever I need,” Bray said. “I think they are doing the best that they can. We are pushing them (vaccine doses) out as fast as the federal government is pushing them to us.”
Bray did reiterate what Governor Kelly said of there being a data lag in relation to the vaccinations.
“We had issues, along with a lot of other counties, in getting logged into that (Vaccinefinder) and getting everyone registered. We had 77 shots in arms two weeks ago but it didn’t show up that we had any shots in arms until Monday or Tuesday of this week. When the governor says we have data lag issues, it is a thing,” Bray said.
Along with helping with the vaccinations, the health department is continuing to be involved in COVID-19 testing.
The health department is offering a rapid test to anybody who has symptoms of the virus. The results are ready in about 15 minutes.
The rapid tests are followed up with a saliva test that is sent off to a lab.
A company has been contracted by the county to contact those people tested with their results.
“That has decreased our workload considerably. We were putting in a good 70 hours per week just calling patients and doing contact investigation,” Bray said.
The health department has also turned over the COVID-19 cases investigations to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE).
KDHE now contacts those people who have tested positive and their contacts and is handling the interviews.
“I feel like we lost a little bit at the local level by doing that, but we have been at it for nine months and our staff really needs a break. We needed a small break before we get into the heavy vaccination phase.”