In a wide-ranging COVID-19 report delivered to the Barton County Commission Monday morning, Health Director Karen Winkelman discussed booster vaccinations, the response of schools as the academic year begins and a host of statistics.

“There were some changes over the weekend,” she said. As booster doses for the immunocompromised become available, case numbers are on the rise, with a noticeable uptick in young children.

Meanwhile, testing and vaccinations continue locally amid Kansas Department of Health and Environment mask, testing and vaccination recommendations. As students head to their classrooms, school officials are refraining for now from implementing these suggestions.  

Booster vaccinations

KDHE last Friday gave permission for all providers to administer booster doses, and the Health Department now has them available. This would be a third dose of either Pfizer or Moderna.

This only applies to the two two-dose shots, she said. The single-dose Johnson and Johnson vaccine is not included.

With the third shot, those receiving it must have had their second dose at least 28 days prior to getting their booster, she said.

Regardless of whether the person had Pfizer or Moderna, they can chose either of the vaccines for their booster. 

Anyone with questions should contact their health-care provider, Winkelman said.

She said the KDHE did give some guidance on the immunocompromised. “We’ve had many requests already from physicians, and especially our oncologists in the community, to have that available for their patients.”

Those who are on chemotherapy, on high-dose corticosteroids, dealing with a transplant or cancer therapy and severely to moderately immunocompromised are included.

“We’re not there to make that decision for them on if they qualify or not,” she said. “So we are letting them self-declare, and if they have a question, we refer back to their physician.” 

It is difficult to know how big the demand for boosters will be, Winkelman said. “We’re going just evaluate it as it goes along.”

If the demand is high, “we have things in place for a drive-through,” she said.

County schools and COVID

Winkelman, County Administrator Phil Hathcock and County Counselor Patrick Hoffman held a virtual meeting with school superintendents in the county last week. 

“We went over what my position is on recommendations, and they can take it back to their school boards to make final decisions,” she said, noting she is following recommendations from the KDHE. “It is backed up with credible knowledge.”

This calls for: Having a structured vaccination clinic available; a robust testing strategy; indoor universal masking for all students, teachers, staff and visitors; and social distancing. “All of those were part of the strategy that KDHE presented,” she said.

She stressed that they were recommendations, not mandates. They also went over what a contact definition is and the mandated reporting of positive cases by the school administration and the school nurses, as well as identifying close contacts to the Health Department. 

She noted there is funding available to purchase supplies, such as those for testing. 

“We had some really good discussions,” she said. She added that the superintendents they visited with are choosing not to follow the testing strategies and noted that masking is optional.

“If you have a classroom and there’s a positive student there, and you have these others that are identified as close contacts, you want to watch them closely,” Winkelman said. “You want to keep them in school if you can, and that’s our goal, keeping them in school for learning.”

There are also measures in the recommendations to catch cases, she said. The regular testing is intended to catch cases quickly.

She has not been made aware of Barton Community College’s plan.

Winkelman was asked if she could foresee a mask mandate for county students.

“It’s hard to speculate on that, because it will be up to the school boards,” she said. “I can give recommendations. I can bring credible sources. I can go with what I support based on my medical knowledge, but it’s going to be up to them to make that decision.”

We have to think of those layers of protection, she said. Doing nothing leaves those too young to be vaccinated with nothing, since masks are optional.  

COVID Rankings

The KDHE is working on a Kansas County ranking, she said. “This is to help you as county commissioners and also as the Board of Health to have data transparency.”

These rankings are going to have three components. These include the vaccination rate in the county for those 12 years and older, the number of COVID cases on a seven-day rolling average and the number of COVID tests given.

“They’re going to measure each county and rank us as to where we fit out of the 105 counties,” Winkelman said. A one ranking would be the best.

“So we’ll see how that looks,” she said. “They said they were going to get it out as quickly as possible so that leaders in the community have data to look at and to base decisions on.”

Of the total Barton County population, the vaccination rate is 35.8% who are fully vaccinated. For those who are eligible (those 12 and older), the rate is 42.3%. These numbers include those vaccinated at all locations in the county.

The rate for Kansas as a whole is 43.3%.

Other COVID information

• As of Friday, the county has 66 in isolation right now who are infectious.

There were 11 total cases reported in June. But, there were 101 reported in July, and so far in August, there have been 88.

Of the August cases, 11 were in children too young to be vaccinated, with one as young as 7 months.

“We’re seeing more and more school-aged children with COVID at this time,” she said.

Also, 15 of the 88 cases were in people who had been vaccinated, or about 13%.

She couldn’t break down how many were immunocompromised, but said the majority had received their shots early, in January or February.

“As we know, vaccines seem to wane, as does the flu vaccine,” she said. “Viruses change. So that really isn’t too surprising to me.”

• So far, the Health Department has administered 11,854 jabs. Last week, they administered 167, which is the same number as the week before.

They still have all preparations available – Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson. 

Of the total given, she said there have been up to three negative reactions to the shots.

She is also seeing an increase in the number of younger people coming in for the vaccinations.

• Testing continues. So far, 37 variants have been identified in the county, 34 of which are Delta.

By comparison, in Saline County, there have been 146 variants of concern found. In Finney and Ford counties, the numbers are 59 and 63 respectively.

Not all samples are being tested for the Delta variant, but Winkelman said there have more cases of Delta in Barton County. 

• This month, there has been one COVID patient hospitalized.

Kansas overview

As of 9 a.m. Monday, there have been 350,384 COVID-19 cases in Kansas, resulting in 12,213 hospitalizations and 5,394 statewide deaths. There were 2,456 new cases, 62 new hospitalizations and nine new deaths reported since Friday, Aug. 13.