Nebraska continued to rank among the nation’s hot spots for COVID-19 last week, with cases and hospitalizations both rising again.
Meanwhile, a new pandemic player — the omicron variant of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 — appeared on the scene.
Six cases involving the variant were identified late last week in southeast Nebraska, in a resident who had returned from Nigeria and in five members of the person’s household.
COVID-19 cases caused by omicron had been reported in at least 17 states by Monday. But the delta variant remains responsible for more than 99% of cases in the United States.
Nebraska reported 6,871 new cases of COVID-19 in the week ending Thursday, according to a World-Herald analysis of data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That was up from 5,628 the previous week.
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Hundreds of the new cases likely occurred during the previous week and were reported late because of the Thanksgiving holiday. Overall, Nebraska’s case count appears to be holding steady at a little more than 6,000 a week.
That is enough to give the state the nation’s 13th-highest per capita case rate. Nine of the 10 states with the highest rates are in the North and Northeast, places where cooler weather is sending people indoors. New Hampshire, Minnesota and Michigan have the highest rates. Vermont, which for the entire pandemic has the second-lowest per capita case rate, had the nation’s fourth-highest rate last week.
Hospitalizations due to COVID-19 continued their steady six-week climb. An average of 533 people were hospitalized with COVID in Nebraska on any given day last week. That was up 7% from the previous week, with 65 new patients being admitted every day. By Sunday, 574 people were hospitalized with COVID. That was the highest number since just before Christmas 2020.
The state total includes 292 patients in the Omaha metro area, including 108 receiving intensive care.
Critical care doctors who work in Omaha joined state health officials last week in pleading with Nebraskans to get vaccinated and seek booster shots, along with wearing masks in public indoor spaces and avoiding crowded places. They said they wanted to ensure that hospital beds were available for those who need them.
These days, getting a bed often requires a wait.
Dr. Cary Ward, chief medical officer for CHI Health, said Friday that every intensive care bed in the health system’s 14 Nebraska and southwest Iowa hospitals typically is full at any given time.
ICU beds open during the day, he said. But they’re immediately taken by transfers from other hospitals or patients coming from the emergency room. Not all, of course, are COVID-19 patients.
“You will likely have a much longer wait than usual if you go to any of the state’s emergency rooms,” Ward said. Patients may also face waits to get beds on regular hospital floors.
The vaccines, meanwhile, continue to keep people out of hospitals. Since late October, people who are not fully vaccinated have been 10 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 than those who are fully vaccinated, according to state health officials.
Ward urged people who have taken a stance against vaccination to reconsider. More and more data support the fact that the vaccines are safe and effective.
“It is OK to change your camp, it’s OK to change your team,” he said. “People seriously need to reevaluate their reasons for not choosing to get the vaccine.”
Meanwhile, health officials worldwide are awaiting additional research to answer questions about how transmissible omicron will prove to be, as well as how likely it is to cause severe illness and to evade immunity from vaccines or prior infections.
So far, data indicate that the variant is spreading rapidly in South Africa.
Dr. James Lawler, a co-executive director of the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s Global Center for Health Security, said in a video briefing last week that Nebraska doesn’t need any additional stress on its hospitals.
“We’re not in a good place … to be absorbing a new, more transmissible and potentially dangerous variant,” he said.
Nebraska recorded 34 additional coronavirus-related deaths last week, bringing the pandemic total to 3,180, according to the CDC. The state had recorded a total of 316,013 cases as of Sunday, .
Statewide, 87,000 doses of vaccine were administered last week, including 56,000 booster shots. Some 71% of Nebraska adults are fully vaccinated, which ranks 24th among states.
The state ranks higher when it comes to getting boosters into residents. Almost one in three fully vaccinated adults has received a booster shot, the 11th-best rate in the nation. The state also has the eighth-best rate for the percentage of fully vaccinated people 65 and older who have been boosted.
Some 17% of Nebraska children ages 5 to 11 now have at least one dose of vaccine.