Health District has good COVID news to share

 


News coming from the South Heartland District Health Department (SHDHD) officials continues to improved. Monday the district director reported just 13 lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases in the previous seven days (May 10 – May 17), averaging under 2 cases per day and bringing the cumulative number of cases in the four-county health district to 4,898. The new confirmed cases for the seven-day period were 10 in Adams County, 1 in Clay County, and 2 in Webster County. By county, the new cumulative totals are: 3,160 cases in Adams, 773 cases in Clay, 548 cases in Nuckolls, and 417 cases in Webster.

Michele Bever, SHDHD executive director, also reported on the health district’s positivity (number of positive tests divided by the number of tests performed). For the week ending May 15, Bever said COVID-19 testing remained low with only 392 total tests and 64 percent of these tests associated with long-term care facility testing. “The positivity for community testing was 8.4 percent, down from 14.8 percent the previous week and closer to our goal of 5 percent community positivity,” Bever said. By county, the community positivity was 7.4 percent in Adams, 8.3 percent in Clay, 0.0 percent in Nuckolls, and 28.6 percent in Webster.

Bever said some of the recent cases reported to South Heartland were caused by the variant B.1.1.7. “To date, we have identified 13 cases of COVID-19 caused by the B.1.1.7 variant, including eight in Adams County, one in Clay County, one in Nuckolls County and two in Webster County,” she said. “Only a small proportion of cases are sequenced, so this tells us the variant is in our district, but not how widespread it is. In some regions of the country, this variant has become more common than the original strain of the SARS-CoV2 virus. We continue to recommend residents practice caution and prevention to protect themselves, their loved ones and others, especially if they are not yet fully vaccinated.”

Bever said the department was excited to begin offering vaccine for adolescents ages 12 and up this week.

To date, 36 percent of all South Heartland residents are fully vaccinated. Bever reported 79 percent of residents ages 65 and older and 55 percent of residents ages 55 to 64 years are fully vaccinated. “The older age groups are out ahead in being fully vaccinated and able to safely do more activities, but we hope the increased vaccine availability will make it easier for residents under age 55 to get their vaccine now.”

 

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