COVID-19 cases continued to decline slightly, both nationally and statewide, during the past week.

The U.S. case rate was 24,000 cases per day over a seven-day average as of Monday, while statewide, there were about 714 cases per day.

The Three Rivers Health District continues to have low levels of the virus, with only 12 new cases since last Tuesday, according to a press release from medical director Dr. Richard Williams. All Three Rivers jurisdictions are in LOW levels, he said, while the average number of people hospitalized has further declined, at 265 per day over a seven-day average.

Williams said that the BA.2 sub-lineage of the Omicron variant of Covid currently makes up about 50 percent of currently-circulating virus, posing about the same level of threat as the BA.1 variant. A new variant of Omicron—Variant XE—has emerged in the United Kingdom, he said, and it is being monitored to determine the potential impact. However, he said, there’s no cause for concern at thi...