Overall, Lyon County Public Health Emergency Preparedness Director Jennifer Millbern is pleased with a new data release tool implemented last week by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
On Wednesday, KDHE rolled out its first set of COVID-19 County Rankings, and Lyon County fared well overall at 14th. Millbern was gratified by the overall ranking, which shows vaccination, caseload per 100,000 residents and testing per 100,000 residents, but she said the stats demonstrate one major need: more testing.
Lyon County Public Health now says over 17,000 residents — over 50 percent of the county’s population of around 32,000 — has now been tested at least once for COVID-19.
Lyon County has 53 percent of its total population vaccinated (14th in that category), 32 cases per 100,000 residents (41st) and 173 tests per 100,000 (57th). The dashboard is currently offline, so Friday stats are not available.
Morris County, meanwhile, fares best in the overall area rankings, listed as seventh in the initial report Wednesday. Coffey County now ranks 72nd overall, last in the KVOE listening area. Click here for the KDHE County Rankings report.
KDHE was busy last week. In addition to the county rankings, it added a new dashboard for tracking vaccination rates among healthcare personnel — specifically in long-term care facilities. Click here for the KDHE report on Nursing Home Vaccine Coverage.
Vaccination rates as a whole are slowly improving. Lyon County now has 53.8 percent of its eligible residents ages 12-plus and 46 percent of its total population fully vaccinated, both tops in the KVOE listening area.
