HANCOCK — Following a steep post-Omicron plunge, local COVID-19 cases are seeing gentler declines, largely stabilizing at around 50 cases a week for the five-county area.

“We’re pretty much back to the August levels, or pre-August levels,” said Western Upper Peninsula Health Department Health Officer Kate Beer.

Though hospitalization rates had not risen by the same level during Omicron, those numbers have also dropped. Across the Upper Peninsula, there were 14 patients hospitalized for COVID as of Monday, versus 74 at the start of February.

The WUPHD is anticipating a cyclical return to higher cases at some point, “though everything is still pretty new,” Beer said.

Beer said the WUPHD is focusing on education and prevention, and making sure resources are in place if there is another surge. That includes maintaining testing facilities and keeping vaccines available.

“We’ve actually seen a decrease in demand for vaccinations, including boosters, so the numbers are pretty stable there,” Beer said.

Across the five-county area, 57.3% of people have received at least one dose of the vaccine, ranging from 51.2% in Baraga County to 66.7% in Ontonagon County.

The WUPHD also continues to distribute KN-95 masks provided by the federal government during the Omicron surge. So far, more than 10,000 masks have been given out, Beer said.

Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention moved to new guidelines. Communities are grouped into three levels of risk: low, medium and high. The level is determined by the highest risk level from among three categories: the number of new cases per 100,000 people over the past week, which had previously been the CDC’s main metric. It also uses two other characteristics: new COVID-related admissions over the past week and the percentage of staffed in-patient hospital beds being used by COVID patients.

During the announcement of the new guidelines, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said the new approach reflected the improved access to measures such as vaccines, treatments, better masks and ventilation upgrades. She said efforts were directed especially towards protecting people at high risk for severe illness and preventing hospitals and healthcare systems from being overwhelmed.

As of Friday, Gogebic and Ontonagon counties were classified as high-risk, while Baraga, Houghton and Keweenaw counties were medium.

“Masking is, of course, always recommended, but it’s not entirely necessary at low,” Beer said. “Medium … people with any underlying conditions or that are at higher risk, they would like to see them mask. High would be a recommendation to mask in all public areas.”

While Gogebic and Ontonagon’s case rates were on par with, and in some cases lower than, those of counties to the north, hospital admissions were higher. They were grouped in the Oneida-Vilas service area, including parts of Wisconsin. That area had 5.9% of beds devoted to COVID patients. That would qualify it as low. However, new COVID admissions were at 23.9; 20 or above is considered high.

The Houghton-Baraga hospital region had 3.8% of hospital beds being used by COVID patients and 10.9 hospital admissions over the past week per 100,000.

The patient numbers required to be considered high-risk are lower when the community rate of infection increases. When weekly cases exceed 200 per 100,000 people, high risk is anything above 10 admissions per 100,000 people or a 10% patient bed rate.

Beer said the WUPHD is monitoring the new model to see how it plays out.

“The concern for our area is … with the population numbers in our area being lower, the numbers in this model can change on a daily basis,” she said.

Cases would also have dropped to a lower risk threshold for the first time in months under the CDC’s old metrics, based on weekly cases per 100,000. In Houghton County, those numbers had fallen to 64 weekly cases per 100,000, the lowest number since Aug. 8. Other counties in the western U.P. have also fallen sharply from their Omicron highs: Baraga was at 134, followed by Gogebic (93) and Ontonagon (87.4). Keweenaw County’s Friday numbers were not listed.

There was one death in Houghton County over the past week, bringing the total number in the five-county area to 258.