Officials say that COVID is shifting from being a pandemic to being endemic but what does that mean? TriCounty Health Officer Kirk Benge explains that when a disease transitions to endemic it is just ever present in the community like influenza, cold viruses, or RSV. The disease is no longer as severely widespread but it’s not squashed out either. TriCounty Nursing Director KayCee Asay shares that the health department will be shifting away from closely counting cases of COVID. “[We’re] hoping to focus more on congregate living settings and hospitalizations and those that might cause a higher burden onto the hospitals where they might be overwhelmed and focus on those rather than daily case counts of who gets tested,” shares KayCee. Congregate living settings would be places like jails and skilled nursing facilities or places that have a higher chance of disease spreading farther. There will still be information on COVID-19 on www.tricountyhealth.com but rather than case counts, the focus will be on the hospitalization rates.
