Kansas seniors, essential workers eligible for COVID vaccine. Here’s the state’s plan

Kansas seniors 65 and older and some essential workers such as teachers are eligible to get the COVID-19 vaccine as of Thursday, a news release from Gov. Laura Kelly’s office said.

The state’s Phase 2 covers about a third of Kansans, also including those living or working in group settings, such as prisons and homeless shelters.

But for now the state has only a fraction of the doses needed to vaccinate that group.

Counties are free to move through the phases on their own assuming that all individuals in the previous phase had received a vaccine if they chose to. The rate at which counties are able to vaccinate residents depends on how many vaccines are distributed to the state from the federal government, Kansas Department of Health and Environment Secretary Lee Norman told legislators Tuesday.

The state typically receives around 1% of all vaccines distributed throughout the country.

“We use every tool available to make vaccine delivery transparent, efficient, and fast in order to reach as many Kansans as possible,” Kelly said in the news release.

Kansas Is expected to receive 45,000 doses of the vaccine next week to start vaccinating the 1 million residents who fall into Phase 2. Each person must receive two doses to be fully vaccinated.

As of Wednesday, almost 4% of Kansans had received the vaccine in Phase 1, which covered front-line health care workers and residents and staff of in nursing homes. Many doctors and nurses, Norman said, passed on getting the vaccine because of immunity from having the virus recently or because of “vaccine hesitancy.”

The health department launched a vaccine dashboard at kansasvaccine.gov for residents to see vaccination data in the state and learn more about the vaccines being distributed. The site will also show what phase of vaccinating the state is in. Numbers will be updated Wednesdays at 5 p.m.

Counties have begun preparing for vaccine distribution in Phase 2. In Johnson County, health officials opened an interest survey, at jocogov.org/covid-19-vaccine, for individuals who qualify for Phase 2 vaccination. Those residents will be contacted by the health department to set up an appointment for their vaccination. Wyandotte County put out a similar survey at wycokck.org/COVID-19.

Norman said many counties have already started Phase 2.

This story was originally published January 20, 2021 at 6:08 PM.