MISSION, Kan. (AP) — Gov. Laura Kelly has announced plans to fix issues that have led Kansas to underreport the number of people vaccinated for COVID-19.
The state's vaccination rate consistently ranks among the lowest in the country, and Kelly has blamed technical problems with the tracking system, called KSWebIZ.
As of Wednesday, 10.4% of the state's population, or 303,677 people, have received at least the first of two required doses, state health data showed.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows the state has administered only 72% of the 581,975 doses it has received, up from 60.2% a week ago.
Dr. Lee Norman, the head of the state health department, said last week that 100,000 doses administered had not been registered as such because of system glitches.
Kelly said in a statement released Thursday evening that the state is working on addressing underlying data transfer problems with KSWebIZ.
In the meantime, providers will be required starting Monday to report daily on the number of doses received, administered, in inventory and transferred. Kelly said providers with identified reporting issues also would be required to submit patient-level information to KSWebIZ and state health officials via flat files to reduce errors and account for doses that have been delivered but not yet reported as administered or in inventory.
"We want Kansans to have confidence that we are vaccinating at-risk Kansans as quickly as possible, and despite data lags, health care providers are administering all doses of vaccine to those who need them most," Kelly said.
