photo by: Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health

Aug. 5 COVID-19 update from the health department

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

Previously, Douglas County announced that four people — a male resident in his 70s and three 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 female resident in her 80s, health department spokesperson George Diepenbrock said. The woman had been hospitalized at LMH Health.

An update from LMH Health stated that the inpatient died Tuesday night.

Douglas County reported 686 cases of COVID-19 as of Wednesday, an increase of two cases since 3 p.m. Tuesday.

In Douglas County, 600 out of the 686 cases are inactive or beyond the infectious period, according to Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health.

The county has averaged about nine 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 nine cases per day is one of the lowest averages the county has seen since early July.

Three patients at Lawrence’s hospital had COVID-19 on Wednesday, three fewer than Tuesday.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s online map noted on Wednesday that 12,038 Douglas County residents had been tested for the disease so far. The county’s testing rate per 1,000 people was 98.5.