Health officials in southeast Kansas are urging residents to get vaccines against COVID-19 as the delta variant spreads across the region. The Kansas City Star reports that Kansas counties have higher vaccination numbers than Missouri counties across the border, but they lack the herd immunity needed to insulate the community from a new outbreaks.
Over the past two weeks, 18% of COVID-19 tests in Crawford County have been positive, a sign of increasing community spread and inadequate testing. And in Cherokee County, the positivity rate is is 27%. Meanwhile, the delta variant is the dominant strain in Kansas, with 289 confirmed cases, most of which are located in Sedgwick, Johnson, Riley and Crawford counties.