By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
Health departments across the region are beginning to see positive cases of COVID-19 steadily drop.
St. Joseph Health Educator Nancy King says the numbers have declined enough that for now it's safe to take a breath, but she's unsure for how long.
"That's the thing about the virus is that we just aren't really sure at what point are we going to be moving from the pandemic designation to an endemic type of designation," King tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post
Andrew County Health Nurse Manager Jayne White says numbers are also declining in Andrew County.
"Our numbers have declined as well and that's kind of what we've seen throughout the pandemic, is that we'll have a sharp increase and then a few weeks goes by and typically we see it come back down, and we're absolutely seeing that here too," White says.
King says the health department's concern as the numbers drop, is if another variant of COVID-19 is on the way.
"It's just the concern of, is there another variant that's going to come along that may be as contagious or more contagious than Omicron, is it going to cause more serious illness, those are just some things to be concerned with," King explains. "They're already talking about the BA.2 subvariant, they're calling it like a stealth Omicron."
King says that with a lower number of cases, it's ok to go back to doing normal activities and gathering together, not being as strict about safety.
But King also says that it's important to keep up on the news to be aware if something were to change.
"To see if there is an increase in cases that may want to cause us to go back to some of the measures like masking, or social distancing, or avoiding those crowded indoor places," King says. "But you know a lot of it is going to depend on how serious a new variant may be."
As of Friday, the St. Joseph Health Department was reporting 22 positive cases of COVID-19. Mosaic LIfe Care reports 19 COVID hospitalizations, all in St. Joseph.
In Kansas, the Doniphan County Health Department reports 16 active cases of COVID-19, the northeast Kansas county has seen 2, 124 positive cases.