Public Health Director Dan Partridge addresses the Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health board during Monday's meeting. Partridge discussed the decline in county COVID-19 cases.
As COVID-19 cases continue to decline in Douglas County and across the country, the Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health board discussed next steps regarding mitigation during Monday’s meeting.
According to the Douglas County COVID-19 dashboard, there were eight new COVID-19 cases in the county Monday, bringing the current active case count to 118. The average positivity rate as of Monday is 1.6%. There is one active inpatient at LMH Health.
“We’re making a deliberate attempt to say we’re moving on to recovery,” Public Health Director Dan Partridge said. “So, things have really really settled down to a level that’s, you know, approximate to many of the other low points that we’ve had on this two-year journey.”
Partridge said there is uncertainty on whether there will be another spike in cases due to the new BA.2 variant. He added that next steps the county can take will include vaccinations for younger children and booster shots for those who need them.
“We’re currently planning on trying to get as prepared as we can for when the news drops about 0-4 [age group,] so that we can hit the ground running on delivering those vaccinations to that age group,” Partridge said. “We try to keep our eye on the radar to see where it’s going to go down the road.”
Board member Stephen Fawcett discussed the mask mandate that is no longer in place and how this is affecting businesses and workers. He cited how a large amount of the community no longer wears masks when out in public and how the variant may affect this.
“I just wonder how we’ll keep masks visible for when we’ll need them again,” Fawcett said. “I’m wondering if there’s messaging that supports businesses that want to keep their staff protected. There may be a market for that, and language and communications would essentially make that a positive thing for a business that chooses to not have the faces of their employees exposed.”
Partridge said the county is attempting to move away from the current community transmission indicator tool. He added that those in charge of communications, including Rebecca Smith, vice president of strategic communications for LMH Health, are determining how to create messaging for the public that would address mask-wearing and transmission levels.
In other news, Clinic Services Director Linda Craig provided a report on Long Acting Reversible Contraception. This is a service LMH Health plans on providing for the community and includes forms of birth control like intrauterine contraceptives and implants.
“There are two kinds of ways of thinking about how we present this to the public,” Craig said. “Do we make it a large announcement on our website? Do we add it into our line of services since LARC is not new? We’re probably one of the last to start to offer that, in terms of health departments. What kind of issues will it raise in the community, depending on how we roll it out?”
Board member Erika Dvorske said people will be able to find information if they search the Internet, so she thinks the information should be accessible.
“The conversation about contraceptives is one that needs to happen more publicly,” Dvorske said. “I don’t think we should shy away from that.”
Reach reporter Abby Shepherd at [email protected]