Expanded Access for Vaccines – spread the news! Starting today, Kansans inPhases 3 & 4, those with health conditions and those who work in critical industries, are eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Please help us spread the word – so that eligible populations get vaccinated as quickly as possible before the state opens vaccination to the general public. To find locations administering COVID-19 vaccinations in Kansas, please click here. At this point, there are many unfilled slots, and it is important high-risk populations are aware that the vaccines are now available.
Medical forms not needed. Please let your colleagues and friends know that they will NOT be required to bring medical records or “proof” of their health condition. Instead, they will be asked to abide by the honor system and self-attest (to see a sample self-assessment form, please click here).
Recruiting medical practices to vaccinate their patients. KDHE is encouraging eligible health care providers, including medical practices, to enroll as COVID-19 vaccinators. Participating as a COVID-19 vaccinator is a public service that you can offer to your patients, beginning with those who have pre-existing health conditions. Depending on storage capacity and the number of patients projected to be vaccinated weekly, enrolled medical practices will either receive vaccine directly from participating health systems/hospitals or from their local health department.
Enrolling as a vaccinator. There are three steps to becoming a COVID-19 vaccination provider:
Hitting the One Million Mark.We have administered more than 1M doses of vaccine, with almost 25% of the population receiving at least one dose; overall trends in Kansas continue to be positive. We expect a large increase in vaccine supply with more Johnson & Johnson vaccines coming onto the market and increased production capacity of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. While timing is yet to be determined, Governor Kelly expects to expand to the fifth and final phase well ahead of President Biden's target date of May 1.
Expand efforts to work with providers on improving vaccine administration rate. We continue to improve our reported administration rate as providers with on-hand inventory have plans in place to increase the number of vaccines going into arms. Several counties are receiving assistance from the National Guard who have been deployed to provide supplemental staff at mass vaccination sites. In addition, 28K doses have been uploaded via flat-file this week bringing the total to 53K doses reported as administered via flat-files to date. The provider dashboard was posted to the KDHE website on 3/15 with providers' self-reported data on doses delivered net of transfers. Additional data will be added today (e.g., doses administered, inventory on hand) to promote transparency in vaccination efforts. This week, KDHE will do a practice run adjusting providers' weekly allocations based on current inventories. Starting next week, the updated allocation model will go live, adjusting allocations to providers that have excess inventory on-hand. A huge thanks to all the providers working diligently to help address these critical issues.
Promoting Vaccine Equity. In order to promote access to vaccines in high-risk communities, KDHE plans to bring mobile clinics to an initial 20 communities that rank high on the CDC's social vulnerability index. To address vaccine confidence, KDHE is working through logistics to engage with trusted local leaders. More news on the Vaccine Equity Stakeholder Taskforce to be announced soon. For a wealth of resources for at-risk communities, visit Immunize Kansas Coalition - Vaccine Equity Resources.
New Federal Funding Opportunities. On Wednesday of this week at 1 PM, KDADS, KDHE, and the Office of Recovery will host a webinar for Kansas medical providers on two federal programs that provide funding to support system resiliency including increasing telehealth capabilities. For more information and to sign up, please click here.
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