COVID dial moves down into the orange here

WAYNE — The COVID-19 Risk Dial for the Northeast Nebraska Public Health Department District moved out of the Red last week and back into the Orange.

The scale has five varying degrees of risk from the coronavirus, ranging from Green, or the safest, to Red, the most severe. The District, comprised of Cedar, Dixon, Wayne and Thurston counties, had been in the Red for several weeks.

The Orange portion of the COVID Risk Dial means there is an elevated COVID-19 Spread Risk in the area. Cedar County was in the yellow, or Moderate Risk portion of the dial until late August.

Despite the Risk Dial decline, Cedar County last week recorded four new deaths related to COVID-19, according to the Nebraska Departmen of Health and Human Services (DHHS) late Friday. Cedar County’s deaths doubled its overall toll to eight.

The county also reported 27 new cases Friday, its largest one-day rise to date and 11 new cases over the weekend. There have now been 621 cases reported in Cedar County since the pandemic first hit here in March.

Stay in the know!

To get news alerts on your cell phone, get the Cedar County News app in the ITunes store or  in the Google Play Store.