photo by: Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health

Feb. 8 COVID-19 update from the health department.

Four more Douglas County residents have died from COVID-19, according to the local health department’s update about the virus on Monday.

The new deaths, which bring the total number of COVID-19 fatalities in the county to 70, were a man and a woman in the 85-plus age range, a man in the 75 to 84 age range and a man in the 55 to 64 age range. Three of the four people who died had been hospitalized, according to Jeni McDonald, an epidemiology supervisor with Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health.

McDonald said the deaths did not occur over the weekend, but they were just reported to the health department this weekend.

Douglas County reported 8,346 cases of COVID-19 as of Monday, an increase of 48 cases since Friday.

In Douglas County, 7,771 out of the 8,346 cases are inactive or beyond the infectious period, according to Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health, meaning 575 cases are active.

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 24.36 new cases per day is down from a recent high of 71 cases per day in early January.

Douglas County has a 14-day COVID-19 incidence rate of 283.48 per 100,000 people and a test positivity rate of 2.5%. Test positivity rates are 6.2% in Eudora, 4.9% in Lecompton, 4% in Baldwin City and 2.2% in Lawrence.

Ten patients at Lawrence’s hospital had COVID-19 on Monday, three more than Friday. The county has not released new data about the number of vaccines it has distributed since Feb. 1.

Anyone who has not completed Douglas County’s vaccine interest form may do so online at dgcoks.org/vaccineinterestform. Any residents who do not have internet access or who need help filling out the form may contact the Senior Resource Center at 785-842-0543 and leave a message. Staff will return calls during business hours in the order calls are received.