The numbers of COVID-19 patients at The University of Kansas Health System are holding steady today. Seven people with the active virus are being treated, down from eight yesterday. Of those patients, two are in the ICU, the same as yesterday. One of those patients is on a ventilator, same as yesterday. 15 other patients are still hospitalized because of COVID-19 but are out of the acute infection phase, also the same as yesterday. That’s a total of 22 patients, down from 23 yesterday. HaysMed reports one active COVID-19 patient today, the same as yesterday.
On today’s Morning Media Update, KDHE Secretary Dr. Lee Norman returned to answer questions and update the vaccine roll out across Kansas, including moving into phase five yesterday.
Dr. Norman says yesterday Kansas became the eighth state to open the vaccines to everyone 16 or older, regardless of age, underlying medical conditions or essential work status, which was sooner than expected. He says it reflects the fact that the state has been effective at distributing all the vaccine coming in. He reports 1.3 million doses have now gotten into people’s arms, which is 43 out of every 100 Kansans. He explained most of the data reporting problems have been resolved and says Kansas has bypassed 20 states in terms of the percent of vaccine administered. He cautions that while Kansas has not seen the uptick in cases many states are seeing now, we very well might. He explained that we’re seeing a flattening of the curve for hospitalizations and stresses we don’t want to see it start to reverse. With 158,000 doses coming this week he’s not worried about having enough. Plus, he says the Federal government is shipping doses directly to pharmacies, which is not included in that number. To find the nearest vaccination site, he suggests the CDC website https://vaccinefinder.org/search/. He acknowledged there are still many vaccine hesitant in the state and a one size fits all approach to educating them does not work. He described some of the customized ways the state is reaching out to various populations. He also had a blunt assessment about the Kansas legislature. He said, “This has not been easy sledding since May of 2020 with the Attorney General and the legislature progressively trying to, by statute, curtail what have been century-long public health successful practices by interfering with case investigations and contact tracing. And then in this session, of course, taking away the authorities of the state health officials such as myself and the county health officials and leaving it to untrained medical people to make those decisions I think is very short sighted and ill advised.” He says it’s important to remember the state is dealing with more than just COVID-19, citing a big syphilis outbreak and 400 Hepatitis A cases in less than a year when ten is normal. He adds, “It’s not a time to throw a bunch of obstacles in front of public health officials.”
Dana Hawkinson, MD, medical director of Infection Prevention and Control at The University of Kansas Health System, says there’s not much new about the Novavax vaccine as it’s still in trials, and as of yet, AstraZeneca has not applied for emergency use authorization for its vaccine. He reminds us that it’s OK if you don’t get your second dose exactly on schedule, but stresses not to skip it altogether. He feels Easter services will be safe as long as all the proper precautions and restrictions are in place. He says despite the CDC director saying she has a feeling of “impending doom” about the pandemic, he has more a feeling of great concern because of what’s happened in cities and states where mask mandates have ended and restrictions have been lifted. He warns that we do not want to go backward, and we need to continue to be vigilant about mask wearing, social distancing and getting vaccinated.
David Wild, MD, VP of at The University of Kansas Health System, is in for Dr. Stites. He discussed whether vaccinations will ever become mandatory once the emergency use authorization ends and the FDA gives full approval. He reminds us that because of the incubation period of the virus, behavior changes such as Spring Break will show up sometime in the next couple of weeks. He notes that the percentage of patients admitted to the hospital who are 75 and older has gone down while there has been no change in the 65-75 age group. He urges everyone in Kansas and Missouri to do everything they can to get the vaccine as soon as it’s available and to please not hesitate to reach out to your doctor or medical team to answer your questions.
Wednesday, March 31 at 8:00 a.m. is the next Morning Media Update. Dr. Marissa Love is back to talk allergies and COVID-19. You may have heard of research pointing to longer pollen seasons and you're not imagining it. The science shows pollen season has grown 20 days longer over the past thirty years. The study involved tree pollen. Dr. Love joins to talk about what that means to you and remind us how to tell whether your symptoms are truly allergies or perhaps COVID-19.
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