photo by: Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health

Nov. 5 COVID-19 update from the health department

For the second day in a row, Lawrence’s hospital has had a record number of COVID-19 inpatients. There were 12 COVID-19 positive LMH inpatients on Thursday, an increase of one since Wednesday.

Douglas County reported 3,196 cases of COVID-19 as of Thursday, an increase of 80 cases since Wednesday. But of those 80 cases, only 51 are new. The other 29 are older cases from September and October that Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health said they identified recently “through a quality assurance check of our data with KDHE.” Health department spokesperson George Diepenbrock said most of the cases involved people who have an address in a different county that they listed at the time of testing, but who were determined to be currently living in Douglas County due to school or work.

The county has averaged about 24 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 24 new cases per day is down from a high of 47 cases per day in early September and up from a recent low of 18 cases per day in mid-October.

In Douglas County, 2,834 out of the 3,196 cases are inactive or beyond the infectious period, according to Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health, meaning 362 cases are active.