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Coping with COVID: Local health officials urge patience from those waiting to receive vaccine

By Madison Parry

In a joint statement, regional health directors inform residents waiting on a COVID-19 shot that it will take more time for distribution to reach other groups due to high demand, low supply and continued priority for health workers. Residents are encouraged to keep track of progress but remain patient.

Area residents eager to receive a COVID-19 vaccination will have to wait a bit longer, according to regional health directors.

In a joint statement issued Thursday, directors said high demand, low supply and continued priority for health workers means vaccine distribution will take longer to reach groups in other phases of the vaccine plan.

Although herd immunity within the Kansas City metropolitan region and beyond remains further out than many residents had hoped, local public health departments urge residents to be patient.

The Thursday statement said COVID-19 vaccine distribution has begun in the region, but supply remains limited.

“We are working closely with state partners and with other health organizations designated as vaccinators by the states to coordinate and distribute the vaccine,” the statement said. “We are working to ensure everyone who wants to be vaccinated is served.”

While Kansas and Missouri have slightly different groups in each phase of their individual vaccine distribution plans, each are said to be following federal recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to put in place guidance for their states.

Each state’s first phase already in action focuses on frontline health care workers, along with residents and staff of long-term nursing facilities.

Kansas has just announced Phase 2 of its vaccination plan, a phase which includes those 65 and older. However, it will take some time for enough doses to become available for those within that group to receive their first vaccination, according to David Wild, MD, VP of Performance Improvement at The University of Kansas Health System during a Thursday media briefing.

Wild said the health system is planning a mass vaccination clinic with the goal of giving 10,000 doses a week. One third of Johnson and Wyandotte County residents fall into the 65 and older category and it will take weeks to get to all 150,000 of them.

During the media briefing, Wild also said he believes it will be many months from now before 80 percent of the community is vaccinated and advises people to get on as many waiting lists as possible because it doesn’t matter where you live as long as you get vaccinated when it’s your turn.

To view the vaccine distribution phases for Missouri and Kansas, visit the links below.