The Holy Trinity Episcopal Church bell choir performs at a ceremony to mark the two-year anniversary of COVID at Bryan East.
Lancaster County is continuing to see a decline in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.
The Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department reported 108 cases for the week ending Saturday, a more than 30% decline from the previous week and the lowest weekly total since July of last year.
Weekly cases have now declined nearly 98% since the omicron peak of 4,961 cases the week ending Jan. 14.
Hospital numbers also have continued to decline, with the seven-day rolling average of daily COVID-19 patients at 33. On Tuesday, there were 29 patients in local hospitals, 17 of whom are Lancaster County residents. Only one person is on a ventilator.
Perhaps the biggest improvement has been in deaths. There were 39 COVID-19 deaths in January and 32 in February. But so far in March, there have been just three.
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Those local numbers all are in line with statewide numbers. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Nebraska had 650 total cases last week, and its case rate was the second-lowest in the nation, the Omaha World-Herald reported.
An average of 180 Nebraskans were hospitalized with COVID-19 last week, down 28% from the previous week. The 145 people hospitalized as of Monday night is the lowest number since late July.
The state reported 13 deaths last week, down from 57 the previous week.
Despite the improving numbers, the local health department announced Tuesday that its COVID-19 risk dial for Lancaster County is staying in the low-yellow range. That ends a streak of four straight weeks where the dial declined.
However, conditions show improvements, at least in the short term.
Scott Holmes, manager of the Health Department's environmental public health division, said local wastewater monitoring continues to show declining virus particles.
Holmes said wastewater samples in Lincoln are collected once a week on Tuesdays, and the samples are then sent off to a lab in Massachusetts for analysis. Virus RNA copies per milliliter of wastewater dropped to 109 last week from 158 the week before.
Nationally, the CDC reported that as of last week, 38% of cities showed an increase of COVID-19 viral RNA in their wastewater samples, including 15% that saw virus particles increase by 1,000% or more.
Spiking COVID-19 virus particles in wastewater have often preceded an uptick in cases.
The Lincoln Transportation and Utilities Department has been collecting wastewater samples for months, Holmes said, and virus particles have closely tracked with case numbers.
Photos: 2 years of images tell the story of the pandemic
A worker prepares to administer a COVID-19 test at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
David J. Phillip
Workers wearing personal protective equipment bury bodies in a trench on Hart Island, Thursday, April 9, 2020, in the Bronx borough of New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
John Minchillo
Francisco Espana, 60, looks at the Mediterranean sea from a promenade next to the Hospital del Mar in Barcelona, Spain, Friday, Sept. 4, 2020. Francisco spent 52 days in the intensive care unit at the hospital due to the coronavirus, but today he was allowed by his doctors to spend almost ten minutes at the seaside as part of his recovery therapy. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Emilio Morenatti
Romelia Navarro, 64, weeps while hugging her husband, Antonio, in his final moments in a COVID-19 unit at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, Calif., July 31, 2020. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Jae C. Hong
Masrat Farid, a healthcare worker, prepares to administer a dose of Covishield vaccine to Rubia Begum inside a hut during a COVID-19 vaccination drive in Gagangeer, northeast of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir on June 22, 2021. Farid has traveled long distances to vaccinate mostly shepherds and nomadic herders in the remote meadows of the Himalayan region of Indian-controlled Kashmir. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)
Dar Yasin
People watch burning funeral pyres of their relatives who died of COVID-19 in a ground that has been converted into a crematorium in New Delhi, India, Thursday, May 6, 2021. (AP Photo/Ishant Chauhan)
Ishant Chauhan
Chinese paramilitary police wearing goggles and face masks march in formation at the Yanqing National Sliding Center during an IBSF sanctioned race, a test event for the 2022 Winter Olympics, in Beijing, Monday, Oct. 25, 2021. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Mark Schiefelbein
New Yorkers who died during the coronavirus pandemic are projected onto the Brooklyn Bridge during a commemoration ceremony Sunday, March 14, 2021, in Brooklyn, NY. (AP Photo/Kevin Hagen)
Kevin Hagen
Family members, reflected in the window, wave goodbye to nursing home resident Barbara Farrior, 85, at the end of their visit at the Hebrew Home at Riverdale on Thanksgiving, Thursday, Nov. 26, 2020, in New York. The home offered drive-up visits for families of residents struggling with celebrating the holiday alone. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)
Eduardo Munoz Alvarez
Cleric women wearing protective clothing and "chador," a head-to-toe garment, arrive a cemetery to prepare the body of a victim who died from the new coronavirus for a funeral, in the city of Ghaemshahr, in north of Iran, Thursday, April 30, 2020. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Ebrahim Noroozi
Woman attend their yoga exercise in a park while heavy fog envelops the areas of Lahore, Pakistan, Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2021. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
K.M. Chaudary
Debora Aberastegui holds the hands of her father Pedro Aberastegui through a plastic sleeve at the Reminiscencias residence for the elderly in Tandil, Argentina, Monday, April 5, 2021. Residents here do not have physical contact with their families or leave the residence due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but stay active with group activities within the facility. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Natacha Pisarenko
A neonatologist examines Maria Alvarez's newborn baby girl at the National Maternal Perinatal Institute in an isolated area reserved for mothers infected with COVID-19, in Lima, Peru, Wednesday, July 29, 2020. The 24-year-old first-time mother wept during her labor not just from pain, but because the baby would be born without her father. The baby's father died from the new coronavirus in June. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Rodrigo Abd
Protesters dance and embrace as a song plays over the speakers, during an ongoing protest against COVID-19 measures that has grown into a broader anti-government protest, in Ottawa, Ontario, on Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press via AP)
Justin Tang
Corazona Pena's body lies wrapped in plastic by a Peruvian COVID-19 specialized government team in Pucallpa, in Peru's Ucayali region, Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2020. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Rodrigo Abd
Wearing masks and plastic gloves amid the spread of the coronavirus, girls raise her hands during class in Havana, Cuba, Monday, Nov. 2, 2020. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Ramon Espinosa
Cast members wear face masks backstage under COVID-19 protocol measures during a performance of "Rusalka" opera at the Teatro Real in Madrid, Spain, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2020. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
Bernat Armangue
A patient rests in a chair next to his bed at the COVID-19 ward at a hospital in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2020. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Emilio Morenatti
Patients lie on hospital beds as they wait at a temporary makeshift treatment area outside Caritas Medical Centre in Hong Kong, Friday, Feb. 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Kin Cheung
A pathologist conducts an autopsy on a man who died from COVID-19 in an anatomical theater at the Lviv National Medical University in Lviv, Western Ukraine, on Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2021. (AP Photo/Mstyslav Chernov)
Mstyslav Chernov
Siny Gueye, center left, is joined by other women fish processors to sing a blessing and thankful song at Bargny beach, east of Dakar, Senegal, Thursday April 1, 2021. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Leo Correa
A cat is carried inside a backpack in Wuhan on Sunday, Oct. 18, 2020. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
Ng Han Guan
Israeli child Rafael Peled, 8, looks through a VR virtual reality goggles as he receives a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine from medical staff at the Sheba Tel Hashomer Hospital in Ramat Gan, Israel, Monday, Nov. 22, 2021. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
Oded Balilty
Blanca Ortiz, 84, celebrates after learning from nurses that she will be dismissed from the Eurnekian Ezeiza Hospital, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Aug. 13, 2020, several weeks after being admitted with COVID-19. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Natacha Pisarenko
Father Vasily Gelevan, wearing a biohazard suit and gloves to protect against the coronavirus, gives the Bible to kiss to Serafima Matveyeva, 92, who is suspected of being infected with the coronavirus, at her apartment in Moscow, Russia, May 26, 2020. In addition to his regular duties as a Russian Orthodox priest, Father Vasily visits people infected with COVID-19 at their homes and hospitals. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
Alexander Zemlianichenko
Residents climb onto chairs to buy groceries from vendors behind barriers used to seal off a neighborhood in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province on Friday, April 3, 2020. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
Ng Han Guan
A health worker arrives to screen people for symptoms of COVID-19 in Dharavi, one of Asia's biggest slums, in Mumbai, India, Friday, Sept. 4, 2020. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
Rafiq Maqbool
Coffins carrying the bodies of people who died of coronavirus and are stored waiting to be buried or incinerated in an underground parking lot at the Collserola funeral home in Barcelona, Spain, Thursday, April 2, 2020. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
Felipe Dana
SOS Funeral workers transport by boat the coffin containing the body of a suspected COVID-19 victim that died in a river-side community near Manaus, Brazil on May 14, 2020. The victim, an 86-year-old woman, lived by the Negro river, the largest tributary to the Amazon river. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
Felipe Dana
A woman bangs a pot in support of medical staff who are working on the front lines of the COVID-19 outbreak during a partial lockdown against the spread of the coronavirus in Brussels on March 31, 2020. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Francisco Seco
Jackals eat dog food that was left for them by an Israeli woman at Hayarkon Park in Tel Aviv, Israel on April 10, 202. When Tel Aviv was in lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, it cleared the way for packs of jackals to take over this urban oasis in the heart of the city. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
Oded Balilty
Reach the writer at 402-473-2647 or molberding@journalstar.com .
On Twitter @LincolnBizBuzz.
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