Weekly COVID-19 Update 7/29/2021

7/29/2021 COVID-19 Weekly Update

Beginning today, the Lincoln County Health Department will issue weekly data summaries to help inform the community.

Lincoln County has seen a significant increase in identified cases and positivity rate in the month of July. We are currently in the high community transmission category according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The positivity rate has been at or above 14% for more than 2 weeks. To be considered an area with low community transmission, the CDC states that the positivity rate in the community should be below 5%. Throughout the month of June, our positivity rate was consistently under 5%, even as low as 1.5%.

Cases per 100,000 in Lincoln County are up to 225. In order to be considered a community with low transmission, this number should be less than 10.

Our active cases (individuals in isolation) have increased from a low for the year of 15 on June 16th to 162 today, July 29th. We have added 21 hospitalizations of Lincoln County residents in the month of July.

Vaccination rates remain lower than what is needed. In order to be protected against the delta variant, individuals must be fully vaccinated. The percent of the population that has completed vaccination in Lincoln County is 26.4%.  Experts say that we need a vaccination rate close to 70-80% to have a meaningful impact on community transmission.

Thank you to everyone who is doing their part to mitigate spread and getting vaccinated. Please let us know what data would be helpful to see weekly.