Sedgwick County continues to provide COVID-19 vaccinations and testing as hospital officials raise concerns over an increasing number of cases.
County commissioners heard an update on the pandemic during a staff meeting Tuesday. Deputy County Manager Tim Kaufman said the county has provided a total of 232,299 doses of the vaccine, and there are just over 114,000 who are fully vaccinated. He said the county has vaccinated 45.4 percent of the eligible population.
Kaufman said the county will continue to provide the vaccine at the former downtown library in Wichita and there will be a number of mobile events that will be scheduled. More information is available at the county’s web site at sedgwickcounty.org The county also continues to provide testing at the Sunflower Shelter at Sedgwick County Park, and that location has been testing around 150-200 people per day. The county is reporting a positive testing rate of 8.1 percent. There were 197 new cases reported Monday, with three new deaths to bring the total number of deaths for the pandemic to 661.
The county is reporting 112 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 this week, and 30 are in the intensive care unit. Dr. Sam Antonios, CEO of Ascension Via Christi, said more than 90 percent of the patients are unvaccinated. He said unvaccinated people have had the most severe symptoms and are more likely to go to the ICU. He said a lot of the cases are preventable with vaccinations.
Dr. Antonios said hospital officials are concerned about the increase in cases and staffing continues to be a challenge. He said they are concerned for the fall season when other viral illnesses could surface.
The county’s health officer, Dr. Garold Minns, said nearly all new cases involve the delta variant and the vaccine is the most important tool that health officials have to reduce the number of infections, hospitalizations and deaths. He said about ten percent of the cases are “breakthrough” cases with people who have been fully vaccinated, but for they usually have mild symptoms and for the most part they don’t require hospitalization. Dr. Minns said health officials need to communicate with the unvaccinated and address their concerns, and anyone with any symptoms needs to get tested. He said if enough people were vaccinated, COVID-19 would almost disappear because there wouldn’t be enough people to transmit it.
Dr. Minns also said masking is another major tool to prevent the spread of the virus, and he said there needs to be at least a strong recommendation for people to mask up. He said one person can infect several other people and the virus is geometrically growing in the community.
