COVID-19 updates: New vaccine guidance for pregnant women, Johnson County employees
Here’s the latest on COVID-19 in the Kansas City area:
Pregnant women should get vaccinated
Physicians in the Kansas City area urged pregnant women to get the COVID-19 vaccine after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier this week released new data showing it was safe.
The delta variant is likely the cause of more babies becoming ill with COVID-19 and facing more severe sickness, said Dena Hubbard, a Kansas City neonatologist and public policy chair of the Kansas chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
“This year we are seeing really sick babies with COVID which is a big change,” she said Friday. “So I’m very excited about the recommendations that pregnant women not only have the option of getting the vaccine, so not that they could — but that they should.”
The CDC’s study found there was no change in the miscarriage rate when pregnant women got the vaccine.
The agency’s announcement this week was based on data showing the vaccine was safe for pregnant women, said Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control at The University of Kansas Health System.
Pregnant women are at a slightly higher risk of more severe disease, he said.
Vaccine policy for Johnson County employees
Johnson County officials confirmed Friday that the county will require its employees to either provide proof they have been vaccinated or be tested for the virus weekly.
As COVID-19 cases climb, County Manager Penny Postoak Ferguson this past week announced a mandatory testing program for unvaccinated employees, “in an effort to maintain continuity of government and uninterrupted services while helping keep our employees safe,” said county spokeswoman Theresa Freed.
Beginning Aug. 23, government employees who are not fully vaccinated must get tested once a week. Employees who work in departments providing direct care to residents are subject to tests up to twice weekly. Employees can opt out if they provide proof they are fully vaccinated.
Postoak Ferguson said that as of Wednesday, only 46% of county employees had reported being fully vaccinated.
But the number of daily new COVID-19 cases remains on a concerning trajectory. On Friday, the county’s incidence rate — or the number of new cases per 100,000 people in the past two weeks — was 372. On July 1, that rate was only 38 per 100,000.
The county’s positivty rate — or the percentage of positive tests over the past 14 days — was 9.4%, up from 3.1% on July 1. The last time the rate was this high was after cases peaked this past winter.
The Star’s Katie Moore and Sarah Ritter contributed to this report.
This story was originally published August 15, 2021 at 7:33 AM.