Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Director Pat Lopez says while the number of COVID-19 cases have dropped the number of hospitalizations continue to be steady and is still creating a huge strain on hospitals. “The data tells us that our situation is still critical and our community is not yet in a position where we can safely end the indoor mask requirement.”
Lopez says it will be extended to October 28 at 11:59 p.m. The COVID-19 Risk Dial dropped from the mid to low-orange level on Tuesday and is the first change in five weeks. That means the risk of the virus spreading in the community remains high.
Lopez says the seven-day rolling average dropped from about 140 on Aug. 29 to 90 on Sept. 22. She says it’s important not to remove measures too soon only to have numbers quickly reversed and begin going in the wrong direction. As of Tuesday there were 112 COVID-19 patients in local hospital and three new deaths were reported, a man and woman in their 70’s and a woman in her 50’s. Two of the patients were unvaccinated.
Lancaster County is the only county in the state that currently has a mask mandate.