The local health department will no longer investigate COVID-19 cases or report weekly totals because of a state-level change.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment will take over that responsibility.
The Allen County Health Department has worked with schools and long-term care facilities on COVID cases, outbreaks and contact tracing. That will soon transition to the state, Southeast Kansas Multi-County Health Department Director Rebecca Johnson said.
“We will continue to be in contact with the schools and long term care facilities until this transition is complete,” Johnson said.
The local health department will continue to investigate other communicable diseases as they occur.
The local health department also will cease publishing weekly updates of active case numbers. Instead, they’ll post a link to the KDHE website’s COVID statistics.
Anyone with questions is encouraged to call the state’s COVID-19 hotline at (866) 534-3463.
THE LOCAL health department also announced it will no longer offer the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, after the Food and Drug Administration shared concerns about a blood clotting disorder observed in some recipients.
If you received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and would like a booster, the health department will provide the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. Both can be used as a booster for any COVID-19 vaccine primary series.
AS OF Tuesday morning, Allen County reported 94 active COVID cases.
That’s down from a high of 185 reported two weeks ago, and 120 reported last week.
Since the pandemic began, Allen County has reported a total of 2,547 cases with 26 deaths.
The county’s COVID ranking — which factors in the number of cases, vaccination rates and testing rates — was 81 out of 105 counties. Allen County has consistently ranked toward the bottom of Kansas counties.
The county scored the worst in the number of cases. It was ranked 101st. In testing for the coronavirus, Allen County was ranked 12th.
The county was ranked in the bottom third, 74th, in vaccination rates.
