‘Game changer’ COVID-19 vaccine to arrive in KC metro early next week – Shawnee Mission Post

The Shawnee Mission Post is making much of its local coverage of the coronavirus pandemic accessible to non-subscribers. (If you value having a news source covering the situation in our community,we hope youll consider subscribing here).

Kansas is expected to receive its first shipment of the COVID-19 vaccine sometime between Monday and Wednesday of next week, health officials at the University of Kansas Health System said Friday.

The University of Kansas Health System, located in Kansas City, Ks., is one of five storage facilities throughout the state that will be receiving initial shipments of the vaccine, which must be stored at extremely cold temperatures.

Dr. Tim Williamson, vice president of quality and safety at KU Medical Center, said during the University of Kansas Health Systems daily COVID-19 briefing that while the timeline is a bit of a moving target, the system will be prepared when doses arrive.

This is going to be a game changer, Willamson said.

Some of the first doses are expected to go to frontline healthcare workers who treat COVID-19 patients.

However, health care workers at the University of Kansas Health System will not be required to get the COVID-19 vaccine, said Williamson.

They are required to get the annual influenza vaccine, but Williamson said some of the reasoning behind the differing mandates is that the flu vaccine has a long history of FDA approval, while the COVID-19 vaccine is available through an Emergency Use Authorization.

After frontline health care workers and nursing home staff are vaccinated, doses will become available to the general public, though it is difficult to say exactly when that will be, said Dr. David Wild, vice president of performance improvement at health system. Individuals living with chronic illnesses and residents of long-term care homes will be first in line to get the vaccine.

I think it is probably safe to say no sooner than the spring time for the general public and probably the summer, Wild said.

Dr. Dana Hawkinson, medical director of Infection Prevention and Control at the University of Kansas Health System, said the system was noticing an upward trend in COVID-19 patients and currently had 101 patients with active COVID-19, including 45 in the ICU.

Hawkinson said they expected to see the need for hospitalizationscontinue to increase as infections following Thanksgivinggatherings present in the general public.

Read more here:

'Game changer' COVID-19 vaccine to arrive in KC metro early next week - Shawnee Mission Post