The Panhandle Public Health District’s COVID-19 Risk Dial has moved into the Extreme or Red category for the first time.
Over the weekend, the Panhandle recorded its 17th death and the 5th in Dawes County
Unified Command identifies the victim only as a Crawford woman in her 90s, but the obituary for 83-year old Clara Erixson, who died Sunday, lists her cause of death as COVID-19.
Dawes County added 10 new cases and 15 recoveries over the weekend, dropping the number of active cases to 85. The county has had 362 total cases and 272 recoveries.
Chadron State College added 2 new student cases for 101 total cases, 84-students and 17 staff,.but there were also 6 weekend recoveries to drop the number of active cases to 21, all but 3 of them students.
The Chadron Public Schools saw its number of active cases drop to only 2 with one at the Intermediate School and the other at Chadron High. The district has had 28 total cases and has 13 current quarantines.
The Panhandle as a whole had 331 new cases over the weekend along with 127 recoveries, pushing the number of active cases to 1,657 including 78 who are hospitalized. The region has 3,645 total cases with 17 deaths and 1,972 recoveries.
Statewide, there were 1,584 new cases, 625 recoveries, and 7 deaths Monday to bring the number of active cases to 35,527 with 820 of them hospitalized, both records. The state has had 85,551 total cases and 710 deaths with 49,314 recoveries
The percentage of available hospital beds stayed at 31% with ICU beds falling to 29% while respirator availability rose to 74%.