Shawnee County reported 112 COVID-19 cases from July 12-15 after seeing a total of 156 cases in June. Twenty-five people are hospitalized, as of the July 13 Shawnee County COVID-19 dashboard update, but that number has tripled in the past two weeks. "After months of reassuring trends, our community is in the midst of a surge in cases and hospitalizations in unvaccinated individuals,” said Erin Locke, Shawnee County's health officer. “We all want to have a normal fall, and collectively, our personal actions will determine future impacts." The surge can be attributed in part to the Delta variant, the health department said in a news release. Delta has become the dominate community strain since it was first found in Shawnee County in June.