You’re hearing a lot about a possible fourth wave of COVID-19 cases hitting parts of the country.
Nationwide, public health officials are talking about a “tornado” phase, where certain places won’t see any impact from a fourth wave, either because of raw numbers or preparation, while unprepared locations see major spikes in cases, hospitalizations and possibly deaths. Noting Lyon Countys’ decision last week to turn most of the county’s COVID-19 public health directives into recommendations, Flint Hills Community Health Center CEO Renee Hively says it’s not the time to relax on things like mask use, social distancing, mass gatherings or vaccinations.
Hively made her comments on KVOE’s COVID-19 Vaccination briefing on Monday, a few days after Lyon County kept the existing mask mandate in place until further notice while turning all other aspects of the public health order, including mass gathering limits and social distancing measures, into “strong recommendations.”
This will be another busy week for vaccinations. The Flint Hills Community Health Center has a primary dose clinic at the Fairgrounds Anderson Building on Thursday, followed by a revaccination clinic Friday. Hively says the self-scheduling option for primary dose clinics has gone well over the last month and there is always help if people need it.
People can self-schedule online at www.publichealth.lyoncounty.org for Thursday’s prime dose clinic. Hively said Johnson & Johnson and Moderna doses will be available for the primary dose clinic.
Besides the Health Center clinics this week, Haag Pharmacy is administering Johnson & Johnson vaccines all week with more shots coming in than first thought. Clinics through Wednesday are full, but people can self-schedule for the Thursday and Friday clinics at www.haagpharmacy.com.
Newman Regional Health will have three vaccination clinics for the Moderna Vaccine on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Interested residents 18 and older can schedule an appointment by visiting the Newman Regional portal www.NewmanRH.org/my-health-records.
Hively mentioned there were more no-shows for the Pfizer booster shot last week than there had been in the past. Because there are no more Pfizer vaccines on hand at this time because the vaccine needs to be stored at much colder temperatures than the other versions, Hively says people who missed the booster dose of the Pfizer vaccine will have to “shop around” to get that secondary shot.
