COVID-19 Risk Dial Moves to Low-Orange

Published on August 17, 2021

The Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department (LLCHD) today announced that the COVID-19 Risk Dial is moving from elevated yellow to low-orange. The change indicates that the risk of the virus spreading and the impact on our community is high and continues to increase. On the color-coded dial, red represents the highest risk of COVID-19 spread, and green represents the lowest risk. The dial has not been in low-orange since early February.

Health Director Pat Lopez said the Delta variant continues to drive increases in new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. She said the Delta variant is also affecting some who are fully vaccinated.  

“Before June, we weren’t seeing many of these breakthrough infections but as the Delta variant continues to be more prevalent, we are finding that about 25% of our new cases are in those who are fully vaccinated,” Lopez said. “COVID-19 vaccines, however, continue to be our best defense. They continue to provide a high level of protection against severe illness, hospitalization, and death. Most of the vaccinated individuals who contract COVID-19 are reporting mild symptoms, and some have no symptoms at all.”  

Lopez said the case rate in the unvaccinated population continues to be almost four times the case rate in the vaccinated population.  

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

• The seven-day rolling average of new daily cases increased from 58 cases per day on August 1 to 90 cases August 14.
• Over 1,100 cases were reported in the first two weeks of August, more than the total number of cases reported for all of July, which was 864. 
• The local positivity rate has increased from about 3% at the beginning of July to over 12% at the end of last week. 
• The seven-day age for local COVID-19 hospitalizations increased from 30 patients on August 1 to 64 on August 15. 

Lopez said the good news is an upward trend in vaccinations since the beginning of July. She said the increase has been driven largely by those ages 12 to 15 getting vaccinated prior to school starting, and other adults choosing to get vaccinated due to the impact of the Delta variant. The number of first vaccine doses has climbed nearly 150% over a five-week period from the beginning of July through the first week of August. During that time, about 15,000 people have initiated vaccination. 

No further public restrictions are being implemented at this time. The latest public health guidance is available covid19.lincoln.ne.gov and includes the following recommendations:

• Masks are recommended for people in both indoor settings and crowded outdoor settings regardless of vaccination status.
• Adults over age 65, anyone with underlying health conditions and other populations at heightened risk from COVID-19, should consider further precautions, even if they are vaccinated. Those precautions include wearing a mask in indoor public settings and avoiding close interactions with people who are unvaccinated. You may want to consult with your health are provider about additional steps you can take to protect yourself. 

• Everyone who has COVID-like symptoms should wear a mask regardless of vaccination status. 

Lopez said everyone should continue to monitor their health and to be on the alert for fever, cough, shortness of breath and other symptoms of COVID-19. Even if you are vaccinated, you should separate yourself from others and get tested if you have symptoms of COVID-19. 

For more information, visit covid19.lincoln.ne.gov or call the Health Department hotline at 402-441-8006.