Lincoln COVID-19 Risk Dial Turns Medium Yellow

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) – The Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department (LLCHD) announced on Thursday that the COVID-19 risk dial is changing from low yellow to medium yellow. The change indicates that the risk of the virus spreading and the impact on our community has increased, but remains moderate. On the color-coded dial, red represents the highest risk of spreading COVID-19 and green represents the lowest risk. The dial remained green for ten weeks before changing to low yellow on July 27.

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Health director Pat Lopez said COVID-19 cases continue to rise rapidly. The Delta variant now makes up over 80% of the virus circulating in the United States and is the most frequently identified variant in Nebraska and Lancaster County. Lopez said local data shows unvaccinated people are seven times more likely to be infected with COVID-19 and more likely to be hospitalized.

The Risk Dial’s position is based on several local indicators and information from the previous three weeks:

• The seven-day moving average of new cases fell from nine cases per day on July 1 to 48 cases on July 31.
• The number of new cases was 4.5 times higher in July than in June, and 566 cases, or 70% of all July cases, were reported in the last two weeks of the month.
• The seven-day moving average for local COVID-19 hospitalizations fell from 14 patients on July 1 to 43 on July 31.

While no other public restrictions are being implemented at this time, LLCHD has updated the public health guidelines on covid19.lincoln.ne.gov.

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