photo by: Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health

Dec. 7 COVID-19 update from the health department

Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health will conduct free, asymptomatic mass COVID-19 testing events from Dec. 12 to Dec. 20 in Lawrence, Eudora, Baldwin City and Lecompton.

This is the second time the health department has offered these opportunities. In November, prior to Thanksgiving, about 1,900 people took tests through the mass testing events, and 1.4% tested positive.

The mass testing is being funded through money LMH Health received from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES) for mass community testing, and health leaders hope it will provide more information about asymptomatic carriers in the county.

Douglas County residents who wish to be tested must make an appointment in advance online at bit.ly/LDCPHcovidtest. These testing opportunities are for residents who are asymptomatic. People who are having COVID-19 symptoms should contact their doctor or the health department to be screened for testing.

The asymptomatic COVID-19 testing opportunities are as follows:

•Lawrence: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 12 and Saturday, Dec. 19 at the Douglas County 4-H Fairgrounds, 2120 Harper St.

•Eudora: noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 13, at the Eudora Community Center, 1638 Elm St.

•Baldwin City: noon to 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 16, at Liston Stadium, Baker University, 100 Fremont Street.

•Lecompton: noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 20, at Lecompton Elementary School, 626 Whitfield St.

All of the events will be drive-thru. For those arriving via public transport, there will also be a walk-through option at the Douglas County Fairgrounds. In the event of inclement weather, the events in all cities will be moved to the Douglas County 4-H Fairgrounds under the covered pavilion.

Anyone participating in the asymptomatic testing should not eat, brush their teeth, chew gum, smoke or drink anything other than water for 30 minutes prior to the test. All tests will be saliva PCR tests, which the health department said are “currently the most effective way to detect COVID-19 infection.” Participants will have to spit into a tube to provide their sample, and results should be available in 24 hours or less.

The health department recommends asymptomatic people get tested in order to identify carriers of COVID-19 and prevent them from spreading it to others. If an asymptomatic individual tests positive, they will be required to isolate for 10 days.

In other COVID-19 testing news, this weekend LMH Health handed out free saliva tests on Massachusetts Street as part of its CARES Act funding for surveillance testing. Hospital spokesperson Amy Northrop said the events went well and that the hospital plans to host another Massachusetts Street event in the future, with a date to be determined. She said the hospital and health department are working together to provide a combination of the drive-thru and pop-up testing events to create equitable and diverse distribution in the community.

Another Douglas County resident died from COVID-19, the health department said Monday.

The new death, which brings the total to 28, was a female in the 75-to-84 age range who had been hospitalized at the time of death, health department spokesperson George Diepenbrock said. LMH Health reported a new inpatient death in its Monday update.

Previously, Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health announced that 27 people — one resident between the ages of 45 and 54, seven residents between the ages of 65 and 74, six residents between the ages of 75 and 84, and 13 residents age 85 or older — had died from COVID-19 or with the virus as a contributing factor in their deaths.

Douglas County reported 5,283 cases of COVID-19 as of Monday, an increase of 170 cases since Friday. In Douglas County, 4,129 out of the 5,283 cases are inactive or beyond the infectious period, according to Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health, meaning 1,154 cases are active.

The county has averaged about 51 new cases per day over the last 14 days, according to a 14-day moving average graph updated weekdays by the health department. The current average of 51 new cases per day is down from a recent high of 74 cases per day in mid-November up from a recent low of 18 cases per day in mid-October.

Douglas County’s 14-day average test positivity rate is 6.5%. That percent is down from a recent high of about 13% in early November and up from a recent low of 4.9% in mid-October.

photo by: Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health

Douglas County’s 14-day moving average PCR test positivity rate as of Dec. 7.

Twenty-four patients at Lawrence’s hospital had COVID-19 on Monday, one less than Friday. The hospital has begun dividing the number of COVID-19 inpatients into those with active cases and those who are recovering. On Monday, 16 cases were active and eight were recovering.

Northrop, the LMH spokesperson, said that “recovering” refers to those patients who are out of isolation but still need a significant amount of care, which could include ICU-level care and ventilation. Dividing the inpatients into “recovering” and “active” allows the hospital to report the overall burden of COVID-19 versus the number of active inpatients who need isolation beds and negative air units, she said.