photo by: Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health

Aug. 24 COVID-19 update from the health department

Updated at 6:03 p.m. Monday

With the inclusion of University of Kansas COVID-19 test results, Douglas County’s health department announced 128 new cases since Friday.

As the Journal-World has reported, KU announced Thursday of last week that 89 people had tested positive in the university’s initial results from testing. Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health stated that the large increase in cases over the weekend were due to the inclusion of these results, as the health department has been working with KU and KDHE to ensure KU cases are included in Douglas County’s numbers.

The health department did not release a graph Monday of the 14-day moving average for the number of COVID-19 cases in the county. Spokesperson George Diepenbrock said that due to the inclusion of the KU numbers, “we are still processing some of the data associated with each case and working on updating the regular 14-day moving average graph. We are hopeful to publish the graph on Tuesday.”

The health department also stated that these metrics will influence reopening guidance for K-12 school districts and families, and that the health department will update its COVID-19 Smart and Safe School Reopening Guidance phase recommendation every Thursday.

As of Monday, Douglas County has reported 1,017 cases of COVID-19. Of those cases, 223 are active.

Nine patients at Lawrence’s hospital had COVID-19 on Monday, an increase of three since Friday.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s online map noted that 22,033 Douglas County residents had been tested for the disease so far. That’s an increase of 6,516 tests since Friday. The county’s testing rate per 1,000 people was 180.2.