public health

WICHITA, Kansas — Gracie Dean will graduate from Maize South High School this month, but she’s already working in a field that drew increasing interest during the pandemic.

As a certified nursing assistant at a long-term care facility, she’s among a growing number of young people pursuing careers in health care because of what they’ve witnessed or experienced during COVID-19.

The news of her brother’s death wasn’t unexpected. But mid-March 2020 would prove to be an extremely unusual time for Margaret, an African American woman in her 70s living in Wichita, and for her family to bury a loved one.

The novel coronavirus was beginning to reach Kansas. Just hours after Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly issued an emergency declaration in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Kansas recorded its first death linked to the disease.

Sedgwick County opened a second mass COVID-19 vaccination clinic today as more residents become eligible to receive the vaccine.

The clinic will run through Saturday at the Central Community Church at 6100 W. Maple in Wichita.

Funcionarios del Condado de Sedgwick están aconsejando a los inmigrantes indocumentados que pueden recibir la vacuna COVID-19 sin exponerse a sí mismos o a sus familias a la vulnerabilidad legal de la aplicación de la ley de inmigración o de persecución civil o penal.

More than a quarter of Kansans have gotten at least their first dose of the coronavirus vaccine. And starting March 29, all Kansans ages 16 and up will be eligible for the shots.