Lyon County Public Health is in the process of changing its reporting schedule for coronavirus data, and not just because of the holidays.
Public Health had been using a weekly report with new data released Friday, but it switched to a Wednesday report this week. The agency reported 74 new cases between Dec. 17 and Wednesday and an increase in active cases from 205 to 211. Deaths remain steady at 97 with one death pending final cause information from the state. Active hospitalizations are at eight, up from five last week.
This follows a weekly increase of 227 cases between Dec. 10-17.
The next data set is coming out Monday, and Lyon County Public Health Incident Commander Renee Hively says that reflects both the holidays and a return to a longstanding reporting schedule. With overall and active cases reaching levels last seen at the end of last year and the start of this year, Public Health plans to return to its schedule of three reports a week — Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays — until further notice.
Meanwhile, Newman Regional Health pushed its weekly dashboard up a day to Wednesday. The report shows the percentage of vaccinated residents needing hospital stays gradually increasing, from 16 percent a week ago to nearly 18 percent Wednesday. Seventy-five of the 91 hospitalized patients since July 1 have been unvaccinated.
As of Wednesday, there were 11 hospitalized patients at Newman Regional Health. The medial wait time for transfers is nearly three hours but ranges from under 40 minutes to almost two and a half days.
Nationally, the omicron variant is now the lead strain, overtaking the delta variant that has been the dominant strain since late spring. Statewide, delta is still the lead variant with only 19 omicron cases reported over the past week. So far, there have been no omicron cases areawide — although there have been cases just outside the area in Franklin and Marion counties.
