Douglas County Health Department replaces COVID-19 dashboard with Public Health Data Portal

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - Those looking up COVID-19 information for the Omaha-metro recently have likely noticed the Douglas County Health Department dashboard has received a major facelift.

DCHD recently rolled out a new interactive website to display local public health data, replacing the COVID-19 dashboard.

The interactive information available on the new Public Health Data Portal is largely similar to the previous dashboard, still containing demographic information on cases, deaths, and hospitalizations to help residents have an understanding of local virus transmission.

The website also incorporates a chart tracking local wastewater data, underlying condition numbers, as well as RSV and influenza positivity rates, with indications that it will soon expand the data available on respiratory illnesses to include further demographic breakdowns.

Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services moved to a similar model some time ago; the state Public Health Atlas focuses not just on COVID-19 numbers, but RSV and flu case reports and positivity calculations as well. The state has not, however, included any further breakdowns of that data, by county, demographics, or otherwise.

“There are many respiratory diseases we monitor that negatively impact our community,” Douglas County Health Director Dr. Lindsay Huse said. “The DCHD Data Portal will help our residents make informed decisions about their health.”

The DCHD dashboard has long been the last source for detailed COVID-19 data provided by any health district in the Omaha-metro for some time, outlasting other such dashboards that popped up from other health districts during the pandemic and they sought to help residents navigate risk factors in their areas.

When it was implemented near the beginning of the pandemic, the DCHD COVID-19 dashboard had been updated most every day. Last year, those updates were reduced to twice weekly. In recent weeks, the health department moved to once-weekly updates ahead of the new site rollout.

In addition to updates on respiratory illnesses, the portal also contains ready access to other sorts of public health data, including air quality, restaurant ratings, and animal permits.

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