Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird and the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department today announced that the COVID-19 Risk Dial has been moved from mid yellow to low yellow. This is the first time the Dial has ever been in low yellow, and it is the lowest risk level achieved since the dial was launched nearly a year ago. The yellow level indicates that the risk of the virus spreading and the impact on our community are moderate. On the color-coded dial, red represents the highest risk of COVID-19 spread, and green represents the lowest risk. The dial is updated every Tuesday.
Several changes to the Directed Health Measure (DHM) will go into effect Friday, April 23 and will be in effect through May 21:
The mask mandate continues to be in effect, but a new exception has been added. If individuals are in an area that is not otherwise open to the general public, such as a private office or breakroom, and if every individual is fully vaccinated, they will no longer have to wear a face covering, even if six feet of separation cannot be maintained. This will allow fully vaccinated people to meet in the same conference room or work in the same office without wearing a face covering as long as everyone is fully vaccinated and the area is not open to the public.
- Limiting groups of individuals to no more than eight or maintaining six feet separation between individuals or groups has been changed from a requirement to guidance. This applies to gatherings, youth activities and sports, food establishments and bars, barber shops, cosmetology establishments, cosmetologists and estheticians, body art facilities, and massage therapy.
- Events at venues with occupancy of more than 500 people still require approval from LLCHD.
- Occupancy at restaurants, bars, and other food service establishments continues to be 75 percent of occupancy, but the limiting groups of individuals to no more than eight or maintaining separation between individuals or groups has been changed from a requirement to guidance. Individuals must continue to wear masks unless they are eating or drinking.
- For youth sports, there is no longer a limitation on the number of spectators allowed per participant, but occupancy is limited to 75 percent. Limiting spectator group size and maintaining separation between spectators has been changed from a requirement to guidance. Spectators must continue to wear masks indoors and are encouraged to wear them outdoors.
- Occupancy at gyms continues to be 75 percent, but maintaining six feet of separation between individuals has been moved from a requirement to guidance.
The position of the Risk Dial is based on multiple local indicators and information from the previous three weeks.
- The number of new weekly cases dropped from 348 the week ending April 19 to 264 the week ending April 17. This is the largest drop in weekly cases in nine weeks. It is also the lowest weekly case count since late August, just prior to the surge when fall classes began. The seven-day rolling average of new daily cases was 38 on April 17.
- The community positivity rate was 6.2 percent for the week ending April 17, down from 7.1 and 7.5 percent the previous two weeks.
- The number of COVID-19 patients hospitalized locally has declined overall since the beginning of the year, from 92 on January 1 down to 44 today. Since April 1, however, we have seen a gradual increase in the seven-day rolling average for local COVID-19 hospitalizations, from 22.1 on April 1 up to 34.4 on April 20.