Photo by: Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health
COVID-19 update from March 2 from the health department
Two more Douglas County residents died of COVID-19, according to the county health department, bringing the total number of COVID-19-related deaths in the county to 78.
The two new deaths were of a man and a woman who were over 85 years old, Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health spokesman George Diepenbrock said on Monday. They were not hospitalized at the time of their deaths. Diepenbrock said the health department was recently notified of the deaths by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s Office of Vital Statistics, and that one occurred during the first week of February and the other occurred last week.
According to the health department panel, there were 37 deaths in the 85-year-old age group or over, 22 deaths in the 75 to 84 age group, 13 deaths in the 65 to 74 age group, five deaths in the 55 to 64 age group and one death in the age group of 45 to 54 years.
Douglas County reported 8,653 cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, an increase of nine cases since Monday.
In Douglas County, 8,329 of the 8,653 cases are inactive or beyond the infectious period, according to Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health, which means 324 cases are active.
The county has averaged about 10 new cases per day for the past 14 days, according to a 14-day moving average chart updated during the week by the health department. The current average of 10.43 new cases is the lowest average the county has seen since mid-August.
Douglas County has a 14-day COVID-19 incidence rate of 121.37 per 100,000 people and a test positivity rate of 2.7%. The test’s positivity rates are 7.4% in Lecompton, 2.8% in Lawrence, 1.8% in Eudora and 1% in Baldwin City. Seven patients at Lawrence’s hospital had COVID-19 on Tuesday, the same number as Monday.
Anyone who has not filled out the Douglas County vaccine application form can do so online at dgcoks.org/vaccineinterestform. Any resident who does not have access to the Internet or who needs help filling out the form can contact the Senior Resource Center at 785-842-0543 and leave a message. The team will return calls during business hours in the order that calls are received.
At the University of Kansas, there is a 1.48% COVID-19 positivity rate among faculty, staff and students for the most recent seven-day period for which data are available. Of a total of 541 tests between 22 and 28 February, only eight were positive.