Fourth local death from COVID-19 reported; 679 cases total in Douglas County

photo by: Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health

Aug. 3 COVID-19 update from the health department

A fourth Douglas County resident has died from COVID-19, according to the health department’s Monday update about the virus.

Previously, Douglas County announced that three people — a male resident in his 70s and two male residents in their 80s — had died from COVID-19 or with the virus as a contributing factor in their deaths. This week’s death was a male resident also in his 80s, health department spokesman George Diepenbrock said. The man had been hospitalized at LMH Health.

LMH Health said in its COVID-19 update that the man was an inpatient and died what they believe was a COVID-related death on Monday morning.

“While we can’t share any additional information about the patient due to privacy laws, know that this patient’s family and loved ones are in our thoughts as they navigate this tremendous loss,” LMH Health said in its update.

Douglas County reported 679 cases of COVID-19 as of Monday, an increase of 29 cases since 2 p.m. Friday.

In Douglas County, 585 out of the 679 cases are inactive or beyond the infectious period, according to Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health.

The county has averaged about 10 new cases per day over the last seven days, according to a seven-day moving average graph updated weekdays by the health department. At its height, the average was about 26 cases per day in early to mid-July. The current average of 10 cases per day is slightly up from a recent low of about 9 cases per day around the end of July.

Six patients at Lawrence’s hospital had COVID-19 on Monday, three more than Friday. LMH Health also stated Monday that it will collaborate with the University of Kansas Health System and Watkins Health Services to provide drive-thru specimen collection for faculty and staff later this month.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s online map noted on Monday that 11,765 Douglas County residents had been tested for the disease so far. The county’s testing rate per 1,000 people was 96.2.

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