Osage County vaccine rollout 

Osage County vaccine rollout

Health dept. flooded with calls

Catherine Faimon | Publisher

LYNDON – We expect to give around 300 COVID-19 vaccinations this week, based on the supply we have on hand, and are expecting to receive 100 more doses this week,” said Osage County Health Department Director Jackie Patterson, RN, BSN.

“I have contacted KDHE, but we will not get more due to statewide demand vs. supply,” she said. “We are flooded with calls requesting to be put on the list for a COVID-19 vaccine. The biggest question is ‘when.’ But, we just don’t have a good answer for that. It depends on how much vaccine we get and when. The amount we receive per week could fluctuate.”

Patterson said the department will begin administering second doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in the next week, which will reduce their ability to administer first doses. “We are working hard to get as many done as we can, but we can only give as many as we get in supply,” she said. “We are taking names and calling people on the list once we receive vaccine to give them.

Once a person is contacted by the health department and an appointment time has been set to receive the vaccine, they will be instructed to come to the health department, located at 103 E. Ninth St., Lyndon, and fill out paperwork. For those who are not physically able to get out of their vehicle, the staff will administer a vaccine while they are in their car. Insurance information will be taken, and those with insurance will be billed a $30 administration fee. “If a person does not have insurance and cannot pay the $30, we will not turn them away,” Patterson assured.

The vaccine will be administered by staff in a patient room, then each person is requested to stay on site 15 minutes to watch for serious reactions, and can wait in the lobby, in the main office area or in their car. For those who have received the COVID-19 vaccine, Patterson said there have been no reports of serious adverse reactions, with the most common complaints being soreness at the injection site and fatigue.

Each person receiving the first vaccine will be given an appointment card that designates a date and time to receive the second dose.

As of Monday, Osage County had 39 active cases of COVID-19, with 919 total active and recovered from the virus. There have been 10 deaths. The health department provides updates related to the county’s COVID-19 cases on its Facebook page Mondays and Thursdays, and data may differ from that of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment due to differences in reporting. Deaths are reported once confirmed by the Kansas Office of Vital Statistics.