WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) – The artic air felt across Kansas over the next several days creates problems for the Sedgwick County Health Department in its effort to ramp up COVID-19 vaccination efforts, extending the age limit currently eligible to 75 and older.
With the winter weather bringing some of the lowest temperatures Wichita has seen in years, the health department is booking fewer vaccine appointments due to safety concerns. Starting Monday, the drive-thru clinic will shut down every other hour.
“They would not, safety wise, be able to be out there even for a couple hours,” Sedgwick County Health Director Adrienne Byrne said on Monday morning. “So that’s part of what we’re doing this morning, is moving appointments around around to protect staff. We still want to provide the drive-thru service, not to the extent we did last week, but we still do have some appointments available.”
With the extended stretch of below-freezing temperatures starting Saturday, the health department already began to see fewer people showing up to get the vaccine.
“We probably had the most people that didn’t come. I don’t know if they canceled or just didn’t show on Saturday,” Byrne said.
The health department is working with a temp agency to try to hire more workers to man the drive-thru clinic. That way, workers could take breaks from the cold without having to shut the clinic down.
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