photo by: Contributed and Journal-World File Photos

Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health Director Dan Partridge is pictured along with the department's home in the Community Health Facility, 200 Maine St.

Douglas County is on the verge of again having 1,000 active COVID cases, which will lead local health officials to again consider a countywide mask mandate.

“The operative word there, though, is ‘consider,'” Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health Director Dan Partridge told the Journal-World. “We haven’t yet had the meeting.”

Partridge said it is not a foregone conclusion that public health officials will recommend that the Douglas County Commission approve a mask mandate once cases hit the 1,000 mark. Instead, Partridge said the county’s Unified Command group — it consists of Partridge, the Douglas County administrator and the president/CEO of LMH Health — will meet next week. It will hear recommendations from public health officer Dr. Thomas Marcellino and other medical professionals.

Ultimately, the Douglas County Commission is responsible for approving any countywide mask mandate. Partridge said the earliest such a recommendation would be taken to the County Commission would likely be Jan. 12.

Partridge said he didn’t have a sense yet of whether Marcellino and his assistant felt a mask mandate would be needed. But Partridge said the topic is sure to be considered because the county’s protocol is for a mask mandate to be discussed by public health leaders once the county moves into a “code red” level of COVID transmission. The code red designation also recommends that people limit social gatherings to virtual options and consider delivery options rather than in-person dining or grocery shopping.

The Unified Command group, in addition to asking for a mask mandate, could seek County Commission approval for a health order that would place new restrictions on bars, restaurants, sporting events or other large group activities. Partridge said those restrictions seem less likely at the moment. But he said the group will want to hear from Marcellino and his staff on the subject.

“We don’t want to lead health officers one way or another,” Partridge said. “It kind of depends on where they want to take it, but my read is it would be unlikely we go there.”

What is likely is that the county soon will end up in the code red level. The county defines the code red level as when active case totals are above 1,000 or the 14-day average for new cases per day exceeds 50.

Douglas County was very near the 1,000 mark when case numbers were updated on Monday. The health department registered 987 active cases as of Monday, with another update scheduled to be released on Wednesday.

The case numbers don’t yet include a surge from the omicron variant of the virus. Partridge said he is still aware of only one omicron case in Douglas County, and statewide numbers of the variant also remain relatively low. He’s not counting on that to continue, though.

“We are like one of the last places in the country to see omicron show up in force, but no one should expect it to pass us by,” Partridge said.

Public health officials have said being fully vaccinated and receiving a booster shot of the vaccine will be particularly important in fending off omicron. Partridge, though, said the national news about the importance of a booster shot has not produced a surge in the number of boosters local officials are administering.

About 42% of the approximately 70,000 Douglas County residents who are fully vaccinated have received a booster shot, according to numbers from the health department. While that puts the county ahead of some national statistics — the CDC estimates nationally that 32% of fully vaccinated individuals have received a booster shot — it still leaves a large portion of Douglas County’s eligible population without a booster shot.

Just 28% of all Douglas County residents 12 and older are fully vaccinated and have received the booster shot, according to figures provided by the health department.

“We are just waiting for demand to pick up right now,” Partridge said. “We have a COVID clinic in the health department, and we have some of those employees not working right now because we are down on demand. I’m not really sure what more would motivate people, but we would like to see demand go up.”

Partridge said he believes some residents are still confused about whether they qualify for a booster. In the early days of booster shots, they were limited to people in certain age ranges or who have certain risk factors. But Partridge said those restrictions have long since ended. Boosters are available to anyone who is six months past their second dose of a vaccine. Plus, Partridge said there are no supply issues in getting either a booster or a vaccine dose.

“We’ve got them all, and it’s a la carte here,” he said.

Vaccinations and booster shots are being touted by public health officials as the best way to avoid serious illness as a result of COVID. Partridge said reducing the number of serious illnesses that put a strain on the local hospital and the county’s health system is now the top priority of the health department.

“The goal we always have on the table is how do we keep our health care system functional,” Partridge said.

Data released Monday showed that 16 inpatients were being treated for COVID at LMH Health. Partridge said that is about half the number the hospital has treated at times during the pandemic, but the current numbers may not tell the full story about the strain the system is under.

A statistic that isn’t widely reported is the number of health care professionals who are calling in sick and are unavailable to work on any given day. As that number goes up, the strain put on the health care system can increase, even if hospitalization numbers aren’t hitting new highs.

It wasn’t immediately clear on Tuesday how many health care employees at LMH were out due to illness or other issues, but a leader at the hospital told the Journal-World the system was under strain.

“We are exhausted and stretched thin,” Traci Hoopingarner, LMH Health’s vice president of clinical care and chief nursing officer, said via email. “We need your help to care for the sickest of the sick right now. If you can limit outings or interactions with others — please do so to lessen your risk of exposure.”