photo by: Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health

Jan. 7 COVID-19 update from the health department

One more Douglas County resident has died from COVID-19, according to the health department’s update on Thursday.

The new death, which brings the total to 36, was a man in the 65 to 74 age range who had been hospitalized at the time of death, George Diepenbrock, spokesperson for Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health, said.

Previously, Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health announced that 35 people — one resident between the ages of 45 and 54, nine residents between the ages of 65 and 74, nine residents between the ages of 75 and 84, and 16 residents age 85 or older — had died from COVID-19 or with the virus as a contributing factor in their deaths.

Sonia Jordan, director of informatics for Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health, said in Thursday’s update that the health department will be watching the county’s numbers in the coming days for a potential spike following the recent holidays. Douglas County’s incidence rate, 635.13 per 100,000 people, and test positivity rate, 9.7%, have both been on the rise this week.

Douglas County reported 6,974 cases of COVID-19 as of Thursday, an increase of 87 cases since Wednesday.

In Douglas County, 5,983 out of the 6,974 cases are inactive or beyond the infectious period, according to Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health, meaning 991 cases are active.

The county has averaged about 55 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 54.6 new cases per day is down from a recent high of 77 cases per day in mid-November and up from a recent low of 17 cases per day in mid-October.

Twenty-one patients at Lawrence’s hospital had COVID-19 on Thursday, five more than Wednesday.