The senior medical director for Nomi Health — which operates Lincoln’s largest COVID-19 testing center — has seen the video.
Long lines of idling cars, snaking out of the parking lot near the former Sears store in the northeast corner of Gateway Mall.
On Christmas Eve, nearly 1,000 people pulled up for tests. So far this week, the site is averaging about 700 a day, but that number could go up as people feel the need to get tested in advance of New Year’s Eve gatherings with friends and family.
The reasons, said Dr. June Steely of Bountiful, Utah, are several-fold: Some people want to get tested before they gather with vulnerable friends or family, and others feel the need to get tested after gatherings. And at the same time, the omicron variant is spreading quickly, at least nationally.
“If they get symptoms, they’re doing the right thing — making sure it isn’t COVID,†she said.
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At a news conference Tuesday afternoon, Pat Lopez, director of the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department, cited staffing issues at Lincoln's Nomi testing site as an issue that contributed to the lines, along with increased demand.Â
To help speed up testing, Nomi added 10 contractors, with six starting Wednesday, nearly doubling the workforce it deployed at the site last week.
Still, wait times can be long, especially later in the day, so Steely had advice for those seeking its free COVID-19 tests. First, register ahead of time and complete all the paperwork before pulling up.
“That really helps you get through faster, and it helps everyone behind you get through faster, too.â€
And if you do drop in unregistered, go early. Wait times in the morning have averaged five to 10 minutes, but have grown to about an hour later in the morning and more than 90 minutes at the end of the day.
The demand could increase even further. Last week, the lines grew longer as Christmas Day approached.
“It may tick up again right before New Year’s Eve, so they can get tested before they visit their family. I expect a similar situation, but it’s hard to say,†Steely said.
The holidays make it more difficult to track week-to-week numbers, but positive cases in Lancaster County have dropped slightly since officials saw a sharp increase in the seven-day rolling average of new cases about a week after Thanksgiving weekend.
From a peak of 182 cases a day Dec. 5, the daily rolling average of new cases dropped to 131 on Dec. 24.
"We hope this decrease is not temporary. But our experience tells us that we are likely to have another increase in cases and hospitalizations at the end of the year," Lopez said.Â
Lopez said that's because of large holiday gatherings and the arrival of omicron. There now have been five confirmed cases of the fast-spreading variant in Lancaster County.Â
But, she said, the feeling is that the county hasn't yet seen the surge that's coming. The local risk dial remained in the elevated-orange, or high-risk, category Tuesday.
Lopez said she spoke with Nomi officials about staffing levels at the testing site and Bryan Health, looking at the potential to offer additional drive-thru testing, which she expected to have more information about yet this week.Â
Tests are available at pharmacies, doctors’ offices and urgent care clinics. Anyone looking for information on where to go can find details at .
On Tuesday, Lopez reported two more COVID-19 deaths, both men who weren't vaccinated — one in his 70s and one in his 50s — bringing December's total to 23 deaths in Lancaster County.Â
She said, as of Tuesday, local hospitals reported 116 COVID-19 patients, including 21 on ventilators. Seventy of them are Lancaster County residents.Â
Statewide, 5,826 cases of COVID-19 were reported last week, up from 5,488 the previous week. But the numbers are lower than the 7,052 cases reported the week before that, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The number of people hospitalized with the virus has also improved since mid-December, although hospital capacity remains strained across the state. Nebraska health officials said 470 people were hospitalized with the virus Monday, down from a recent peak of 637 on Dec. 13 but slightly higher than the previous day's 446. The seven-day average of 475 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 was down from 589 the week before.
So far, delta has remained the dominant variant in Nebraska, but more cases of the highly contagious omicron variant are being identified in the state.
Demand for COVID-19 testing increased in Omaha, too, where a long line of more than 150 cars formed at a drive-thru testing site at Oak View Mall on Monday.
Nomi, which also operates the drive-thru site in Omaha, said a delay in getting gasoline delivered for a generator used to provide heat at the site contributed to the backlog of cars, but company officials said Nomi performed 4,200 tests last week at its three Omaha locations — the most since the testing sites reopened in August.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Virus Q&A: Answers to common questions about COVID-19 vaccines, travel and more
What's the status of the COVID-19 vaccine mandate in the US?
It's on hold indefinitely because of legal challenges, but employers can still require the shots.
To control the spread of COVID-19, President Joe Biden previously said businesses with 100 or more employees would need to require COVID-19 vaccination or have workers get tested weekly for the virus. The rule was to take effect Jan. 4, affecting about 84 million workers nationwide.
But soon after the rule was issued by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, it faced multiple legal challenges from businesses, conservative groups and Republican attorneys general that said the agency doesn't have the authority to mandate vaccines.
On Nov. 6, a federal appeals court in New Orleans put the rule on hold, saying it was "a one-size fits-all sledgehammer" that was too broad. Ten days later, all challenges to the requirement were consolidated in another appeals court in Cincinnati.
In a court filing, lawyers for the Biden administration said the mandate was needed to reduce transmission of the virus in workplaces. It asked that it be allowed to move ahead with the rule.
The requirement for employers is among several challenges to the Biden administration's vaccine rules. Federal judges also have placed a hold on a mandate for health care workers in the Medicare and Medicaid programs.
Is travel safe during the pandemic this holiday season?
It depends. It can be safe if you're fully vaccinated against COVID-19, but officials say people who haven't gotten the shots should delay travel.
Regardless of vaccination status, all travelers should keep taking precautions like avoiding indoor, unmasked crowds, says Dr. Keith Armitage, an infectious disease expert at Case Western Reserve University.
"The delta variant has really brought us back to an earlier time in the pandemic," he says.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says not to travel if you're sick, or if you tested positive for COVID-19 and your isolation period isn't over yet — even if you're fully vaccinated. Unvaccinated people who decide to travel should get a COVID-19 test one to three days before travel and three to five days after returning.
All travelers must still wear masks on trains, planes and other indoor public transportation areas, the agency says.
Airlines say plane cabins are low risk since they have good air circulation and filtration. However, there is no requirement for vaccination or testing before domestic flights, and passengers can remove their face masks while eating or drinking.
Hotels aren't risky for the vaccinated as long as they wear masks around strangers, Armitage says. More fraught are family gatherings with unvaccinated individuals, particularly for those who are older or have health problems.
Health experts suggest looking at the case levels and masking rules in the place you are visiting before you travel.
Why can't some COVID-19 vaccinated people travel to the US?
Because they might not be vaccinated with shots recognized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or the World Health Organization.
When lifting overseas travel restrictions in November, the U.S. required adults coming to the country to be fully vaccinated with shots approved or authorized by the FDA or allowed by WHO.
Among the most widely used vaccines that don't meet that criteria are Russia's Sputnik V vaccine and China's CanSino vaccine. Sputnik V is authorized for use in more than 70 countries while CanSino is allowed in at least nine countries. WHO still is awaiting more data about both vaccines before making a decision.
Vaccines recognized by the FDA and WHO undergo rigorous testing and review to determine they're safe and effective. And among the vaccines used internationally, experts say some likely won't be recognized by the agencies.
"They will not all be evaluated in clinical trials with the necessary rigor," said Dr. William Moss, executive director of the Johns Hopkins International Vaccine Access Center.
An exception to the U.S. rule is people who received a full series of the Novavax vaccine in a late-stage study. The U.S. is accepting the participants who received the vaccine, not a placebo, because it was a rigorous study with oversight from an independent monitoring board.
The U.S. also allows entry to people who got two doses of any "mix-and-match" combination of vaccines on the FDA and WHO lists.
Can at-home COVID-19 tests make holiday gatherings safer?
Yes, combined with vaccination, home test kits for COVID-19 can add a layer of safety and reassurance by providing on-the-spot results during this second year of pandemic holidays.
"We will be using rapid tests to doublecheck everybody before we gather together," says Dr. Emily Volk, president of the College of American Pathologists, who is planning a holiday meal with six vaccinated family members. "We'll be doing it as they come in the door."
Home kits are not as accurate as the PCR tests done in hospitals and at testing sites, Volk says. But they have the advantage of giving results within minutes instead of days.
Testing kits are available at drugstores without a prescription, and a box with two tests typically costs about $25. Swabs, testing solution and instructions are included.
Adults and teens can test themselves. An adult can test a child as young as 2. How-to videos on product websites can be helpful.
Most tests require swabbing about a half inch inside both nostrils, so it may tickle but doesn't hurt. You will get a positive result if the test detects a viral protein in your sample.
Home tests will miss some infections and in rare cases mistakenly indicate an infection. One popular test misses around 15 out of 100 infections — these are called "false negatives" — and gives a false positive result in about 1 in 100 people who aren't infected.
Test shortages were widely reported during the last COVID-19 surge, but new options have recently hit the market and major manufacturers such as Abbott Laboratories have ramped up production.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers other tips on ways to enjoy the holidays safely. Vaccination remains the best way to protect against the coronavirus.
Are COVID-19 boosters the same as the original vaccines?
Yes, COVID-19 boosters use the same recipe as the original shots, despite the emergence of the more contagious delta variant. The vaccines weren't tweaked to better match delta because they're still working well.
The vaccines work by training your body to recognize and fight the spike protein that coats the coronavirus and helps it invade the body's cells. Delta's mutations fortunately weren't different enough to escape detection.
The increased protection you might get from a booster adjusted to better match the delta or other variants would be marginal, says Dr. Paul Goepfert, director of the Alabama Vaccine Research Clinic at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Manufacturing doses with a new formula would have also delayed the rollout of boosters.
Moderna and Pfizer are studying boosters tweaked for the delta and other variants to be ready if one's ever needed. Health authorities would have to decide if and when a vaccine formula swap would be worthwhile.
"What we don't know," Goepfert noted, "is if you have a delta vaccine compared to the regular vaccine, does it actually work better in preventing transmission or asymptomatic infection?"
The U.S. has authorized booster doses of the Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines for certain people, and a few other countries also are using boosters of those shots or other COVID-19 vaccines.