KEARNEY — People can determine the current risk of COVID-19 in their county through a new map online posted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC’s new COVID-19 Community Levels By County map has been released as nationwide mask mandates have been shelved and other preventive COVID-19 measures have been sharply reduced.
The map shows the current state of COVID in each county to help citizens and officials make decisions about masks and other COVID precautions. It was introduced at the weekly Two Rivers Public Health Department’s community conference call Friday morning.
Each county on the map is colored in green, yellow or orange to reflect low, medium or high risk for COVID-19 there. Risks are determined by how many COVID-19 patients are newly hospitalized, the number of hospitalized COVID patients and the numbers of new cases in the past week, all in that county.
It can be Googled by simply calling up CDC Community Levels map.
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However, Two Rivers staff noted that the map may not be quite accurate. As of Friday morning, five of the seven counties in the Two Rivers region were shaded as high-risk even though COVID-19 cases are plummeting here, with just 42 new cases in the past week, according to Susan Puckett, community health nurse at Two Rivers.
Two Rivers is now averaging just six new COVID cases each day, a figure below that of a year ago, Puckett said. That number is way, way below the 1,172 cases the week of Jan. 20-26, a rate averaging more than 160 per day.
Also, as of Feb. 25, the CDC no longer requires masks on school buses or vans in areas with low or medium COVID levels.
Katie Mulligan, Two Rivers’ planning section supervisor, noted that Kearney County was ranked at a “high” level on Thursday’s map, even though it hadn’t had any new cases in days. She said the map shows “proportions” of the population, not actual numbers.
Puckett suggesting looking at numbers on the “entire district” for a better peek at COVID conditions here.
Dr. Brady Beecham, the Lexington physician who sits on the Two Rivers board, said, “We are happily back to low numbers of new cases.” She said data about COVID comes from different sources at different times, and that trying to find a specific number or figure can get “frustrating. Small numbers keep bouncing around.”
She added, however, “From what I’m seeing, our numbers look splendid.”
The Two Rivers risk dial released Thursday reflects that. It was in the lower segment of the Elevated level, nearly in the less severe Moderate level. That is its lowest level in seven months. Two Rivers includes Buffalo, Dawson, Franklin, Gosper, Harlan, Kearney and Phelps counties.
Therefore, Puckett said the map could be used as a guideline and “not the final authority on the status of COVID here.”
She said Two Rivers has confirmed 200 deaths due to COVID since the pandemic began March 20, 2020, but more deaths will be announced soon. COVID-19 deaths must be confirmed and pronounced on a death certificate before figures are released to the public.
Riht now, COVID patients are using five out of the district’s 39 ventilators. Two children and 19 adults are hospitalized with COVID.
Puckett said that although mask regulations are no longer required here, “If the risk is high, wear a mask if you are going shopping or going to school,” she said.
“If there is a strain on the health care system, people may choose to mask at any time. People with symptoms, positive COVID test or exposure, should wear a mask,” she said. Clinics, hospitals and nursing homes still require masks, she added.
Again, as she does every week, she urged people to get vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19. Two Rivers has reduced the times and locations for vaccination clinics and its mobile trailer because of declining demand. “Keep an eye on the schedule. That will probably change a bit as numbers drop off,” said Von Lutz, Two Rivers clinical services supervisor.
Two Rivers trailer is now doing testing 9:30 a.m.-11 a.m. Mondays and Wednesdays at its office at 516 W. 11th St. It is no longer offering tests at its trailer at the Buffalo County Fairgrounds. Pre-registration is required at trphd.org
n Puckett said avian influenza viruses have been detected in wild birds for the first time since 2016. It was first seen in commercial poultry plants on Feb. 9, 2022. This is generally of concern only to poultry workers in the U.S., but she cautioned that half of the 900 Americans who got the virus six years ago died, so “we don’t want to see this take off.”
n The CDC theorizes that the sudden uptick of COID cases in Hong Kong is due to the efficacy of the vaccine being used in Hong Kong, which is different from vaccines available in the U.S.
n The public can get free COVID test kits at libraries in Cozad, Franklin, Gibbon, Gothenburg, Holdrege and Minden.
Each kit has “easy, non-scientific” instructions on how to perform the test, Puckett said.
