The local decline in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations has been so pronounced that Lancaster County's risk dial is now at its lowest level in more than three months.
Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Director Pat Lopez announced Wednesday that the risk dial dropped this week from the elevated orange range to the low orange range, where it hasn't been since the week of Nov. 9. Just two weeks ago, it was in the red, or severe, range.
The move comes after a prolonged sharp drop in both COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, which prompted officials on Friday to end the county's mask mandate a week early.
The county recorded 432 cases last week, the lowest weekly total since July 30 of last year. Total COVID-19 hospitalizations were at 60 Wednesday morning, up from 59 on Tuesday, but that number is also at its lowest level in more than six months.
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Case numbers have been falling for several weeks in the county and are now down more than 90% since hitting their pandemic peak of 4,963 cases in the week ending Jan. 14, the height of the surge caused by the omicron variant.
It took local hospitalization numbers longer to start falling, but they have done so sharply over the past couple of weeks. The seven-day rolling average has dropped from 141 hospitalizations on Feb. 1 to 97 on Feb. 15 to 61 as of Tuesday.
"Last week was a turning point for our local hospitals," Lopez said.
She said another positive sign is that the COVID-19 test positivity rate dropped below 10% last week for the first time in months.
Local cases and hospitalizations mirror what's happening statewide.
Statewide, the seven-day rolling average of daily new cases fell from 1,490 on Feb. 5 to 277 as of Saturday. From mid-January until Jan. 26, daily new cases in Nebraska routinely topped 4,000.
As of Tuesday night, 356 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized statewide. That's down from the omicron peak of 767 on Jan. 28 and the lowest total since late August.
One concerning sign, however, remains the number of people dying of COVID-19. Lopez reported another death Wednesday, an unvaccinated man in his 40s. Over the holiday weekend, officials reported two local deaths, a man in his 40s who had not been vaccinated and a man in his 80s who was vaccinated.
In February, Lancaster County has reported 28 deaths from COVID-19. There were 37 in January.
Lopez said she expects the rate of deaths to start declining soon as deaths often lag case and hospitalization trends by a few weeks.
"We’re on the right track and continue to see significant improvement," Lopez said. "The pandemic is not over, but each week we’re making progress and getting our community to a better place."
If another surge does occur, county residents have a chance to be better prepared, as Lopez announced Wednesday that the Health Department has received its allotment of free at-home tests from the state and is now offering them to the public.
She said a limited number of at-home test kits will be available in the lobby of the department's offices at 3131 O St. each day. The tests come in lots of six, and she recommended people take only one lot.
The department also plans to give a number of test kits to schools, child care centers, cultural centers and other sites to provide access to a wider swath of the community, Lopez said.
The Health Department continues to run vaccination clinics out of its office and at elementary schools across Lincoln in hopes of boosting the numbers of vaccinated residents.
As of Wednesday, 66% of all Lancaster County residents are fully vaccinated, but just 1 in 3 children ages 5-11 have received two doses.Â