COVID-19 Risk Dial in Orange for Second Week

Published on January 27, 2021

Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird and the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department (LLCHD) today announced that the COVID-19 Risk Dial will remain in elevated orange for the second consecutive week, indicating that the risk of the virus spreading in the community is high. On the color-coded dial, red represents the highest risk of COVID-19 spread, and green represents the lowest risk. The dial is updated weekly.

The position of the Risk Dial is based on multiple local indicators and information from the previous three weeks. 

• The weekly number of new positive COVID cases has now been below 1,000 for two consecutive weeks. The seven-day rolling average of new cases has declined from 177 on   January 4 to 124 on January 23.
• The main reason for the low case numbers in the last few days is that very little testing took place over this past weekend and the last two days because of the snowstorm. Case numbers will most likely increase once testing resumes at more typical levels.  While testing remains widely available in the community, the number of people getting tested has declined locally and across the State.  Test results can be expected within 24 hours.
• The positivity rate remains high and was at 29.4 percent the week ending January 23.
• As the number of daily cases declines, the case load for doing case investigations  decreases as well, and contract tracing can begin sooner.   In the last few weeks, all of the case investigations were completed within two days of LLCHD receiving a positive test notification.   

• The number of COVID-19 patients hospitalized locally continues to decline and has been under 100 for the past seven days now.    

For more information, visit COVID19.lincoln.ne.gov or call the Health Department hotline at 402-441-8006.