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Barton County starts week with 7 active COVID-19 cases
covid-19 Barton

Barton County started the week with seven active COVID-19 cases, County Administrator Phil Hathcock reported at Monday’s Barton County Commission meeting.

Last week the Barton County Health Department administered 166 doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, he said. “Thirty-nine of those were prime and 127 were booster doses.”

He noted that the health department did decline a shipment of Moderna vaccine the week of April 12, “however, we did receive an additional 1,000 doses of Moderna last week. That brings the total doses on hand, available to the public, to 2,250 doses.” Barton County Health Director Karen Winkelman still has 925 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which has again been cleared for use by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, at the time Hathcock was speaking he did not know if it had been cleared for use in Kansas.

“(Winkelman) is watching that very closely, I’m sure,” he continued. “She is also waiting for the emergency use authorization of the Pfizer vaccine for 12 years and older.” 

KDHE is reporting approximately 30% of the Barton County population vaccinated, Hathcock said, noting some of that would include vaccinations administered at pharmacies.

COVID-19 testing in Barton County is provided as needed and to date the county has had 2,503 cases.

“We will continuously watch and see if we need to have another drive-through vaccine event. Right now they’re handling it well at the health department.”


Statewide

As of 9 a.m. Monday, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment reports 1,101,531 Kansans – 37.8% of the total population – have received one dose of COVID-19 vaccine and 741,694 have received a second dose.

Over the duration of the pandemic, there have been 307,865 COVID-19 cases statewide, resulting in 10,096 hospitalizations and 4,970 deaths as of 9 a.m. Monday. There were 493 new cases, two new deaths and 56 new hospitalizations reported since Friday.

Here are the state totals of positive and probable cases for area counties:

• Barton, 2,605 (+1 since Friday)

• Ellsworth 1,219

• Pawnee 1,166 (+16)

• Rice 1,070

• Rush 431

• Russell 857

• Stafford 338

There were no new deaths reported in these counties and there were no SARS-CoV-2 variants reported in residents of those counties.