COVID-19 cases continue to surge in Lancaster County thanks to the omicron variant, and county officials are again urging people to take measures to protect themselves and the community, such as wearing masks, avoiding large gatherings, and getting vaccinated if they haven't yet.
The county recorded 4,456 cases last week, which is by far the most ever recorded in one week. Over the past three weeks, case numbers have risen by more than 350% as the highly contagious omicron variant has taken hold locally. And those numbers do not include nearly 1,900 cases the University of Nebraska-Lincoln recorded in the past two weeks as part of its required re-entry testing for students and staff.
"Extreme risk. Those two words continue to describe our local situation," said Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Director Pat Lopez, as positive tests for this week neared the 2,000-case mark.
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The good news is that, as has been noted elsewhere, most cases of the disease are relatively mild, especially in people who have been vaccinated and gotten their booster shot. Consequently, local hospitalizations have risen less than 20% over the same period that case numbers have skyrocketed.
But the sheer number of cases is leading to more hospitalizations and more deaths.
Already this month, there have been 23 COVID-19 deaths in Lancaster County, including four deaths reported Wednesday of a man in his 40s and woman in her 50s, both unvaccinated, and men in their 60s and 70s, both vaccinated.
Russ Gronewold, president and CEO of Bryan Health, said 20 of its patients have died of COVID-19 this month, including six who were under the age of 55.
"This is certainly more than a cold," Gronewold said, noting that omicron cases are not mild for every patient.
Despite running at capacity daily, with nearly 100 COVID-19 patients, and dealing with nearly 300 staff absences due to the disease, Bryan's two hospital campuses have still been able to provide all necessary services, he said.
In fact, Gronewold said the hospital is making arrangements to take in more pediatric COVID-19 patients because Children's Hospital in Omaha is full. Bryan had three pediatric COVID-19 patients as of Wednesday. Omaha's KMTV reported that Children's was caring for 15 of the 18 pediatric COVID-19 patients in the Omaha area and has had to regularly divert patients to other hospitals in Omaha and Lincoln.
Derek Vance, president of CHI St. Elizabeth and Nebraska Heart, said those two hospitals are "stretched thin," and the system is operating its contingency care plan, which means it is constantly assessing and adjusting to patient numbers, staffing and bed availability.
Vance encouraged people to follow the mask mandate and also to get vaccinated, noting that 91% of COVID-19 patients on ventilators at CHI Health hospitals are unvaccinated.
Data from the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services showed that in December, vaccinated people were 11 times less likely than unvaccinated people to be hospitalized because of COVID-19 and people who have had a booster shot were 46 times less likely to wind up in the hospital.
In Lancaster County, more than 110,000 people, or 59% of the eligible population, have gotten a booster shot.
Also on Wednesday, Lopez announced enhancements to Lancaster County's COVID-19 dashboard. Among them are a new summary page that has a seven-day case average, a new section on hospitalizations, and a listing of the number of people who have gotten vaccine booster doses.
She said her department continues to explore options to increase testing capacity in the county and has had discussions with Nomi Health about potentially finding a location that provides more shelter from the elements. Nomi, which has a drive-thru site at Gateway Mall, has closed several times this month because of the weather, including Wednesday and Thursday.
In another testing development, UNL announced Monday that all students living on campus, either in residence halls or in Greek houses, will be required to test for COVID-19 next week, even if they tested negative during the university's two-week reentry period before the second semester started.
UNL said in a news release that the reentry testing showed a slightly higher positivity rate among students living in congregate housing compared with the general student population.