Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health has received 210 reports of new COVID-19 cases since Monday, according to the department’s Wednesday update, bringing the total of known active cases to 908.
Wednesday’s rolling 14-day average of new reported cases was 47. That statistic has not been that high since January 2021.
For comparison, Douglas County’s rolling average peaked in November 2020 at nearly 82 new cases reported each day. But 47 is pushing the county closer to the “Red” status of the health department’s community transmission indicator.
Under the established guidelines, with a rolling average of 50 new cases each day or more than 1,000 total active cases, local health officials might begin a push for a communitywide mask mandate and suggest limiting in-person contact. Those numbers aren’t set in stone, though — “The metrics may change dependent on a variety of factors, including the infectiousness of variant strains and the level of hospitalizations and deaths,” according to LDCPH.
The omicron variant is spreading, and a case was confirmed in Douglas County last week.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment reports that it has sequenced 2.3% of positive COVID-19 cases this month. KDHE’s statistics show that the delta variant still accounted for 174, or 90.63% of specimens sequenced for the week of Dec. 12.
Omicron accounted for 18 of the COVID specimens sequenced statewide — 9.38% of the total, but up from just one case the week prior.
Statewide since Monday, KDHE on Wednesday reported 5,074 new cases, 34 new deaths and 153 new hospitalizations.
See the latest COVID-19 stats for Lawrence and Douglas County on The Lawrence Times’ stat dashboard at this link.
Find out where you can get the free COVID-19 vaccine at this link.
