There are two ways of looking at the Four Corners Health District's recent two-week stretch dating back to Oct. 15, department executive director Laura McDougall said in the Oct. 29 briefing. And one of those ways involves positivity.
From Oct. 15-21 the district accounted for 260 new cases of coronavirus in the health district. In the following week the four-county area accounted for exactly 260 new cases again.
“There's a good way to that, it's that it seems like our numbers have not accelerated,” McDougall said. “Unfortunately, they're way too high still. That doesn't mean they can't go higher, they definitely can.”
Seward County, specifically however, has seen an increase. During that same two-week span the county claimed 80 new cases. Between Oct. 22-28 the county had 109 new cases.
McDougall said they've seen clusters coming from businesses, different events, facilities and elsewhere in the community.
On Oct. 30 the Four Corners risk dial elevated to 2.63 from 2.56 the prior week. That's still in the “high” (orange) range.
McDougall said, recently, the largest share of positive cases come from people in their 50s or 60s. That's in contrast to a late-summer bump in COVID-19 numbers where people in their 20s were responsible for the most cases of any age bracket. McDougall said that as older people who test positive are more likely to get hospitalized, where they need to be kept longer than an average stay and that fills bed capacity.
Memorial Health Care Systems CEO Roger Reamer said they'll continue to monitor hospitalizations. As of Oct. 29, Reamer said there were 483 COVID-related hospitalizations in the state. On current trajectory, that number would edge close to 600 by Thanksgiving. Reamer said that's where it becomes a challenge.
“We need to slow this down because you don't want to see your healthcare workers, rescue, police, schools open and all of those are at risk when you see these numbers pop up,” he said.
McDougall also urged the public to be patient with local health officials, who are overwhelmed with rapid testing results and contact tracing.
“Share the word that if you've been around a positive case, answer your phone,” she said. “They're just trying to help. We'd ask that you'd help spread that word because we're having troubles getting through to people.”
Thomas Barnett from Four Corners was invited to speak about personal protective equipment. He said they'll continue to try to obtain and distribute PPE as needed even though there's currently a nationwide shortage. He suggested those at the briefing utilize the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's burn-rate calculator to determine how long their PPE should last.
Reamer said the hospital is on the list for a vaccine when it's available and they've seen specific refrigeration requirements. He said “phase 1A” could happen by the holiday season, geared towards healthcare workers.
Reamer also said that Test Nebraska would not be in the hospital's west parking lot on Nov. 6 because of construction on a heated facility. Test Nebraska is scheduled to return to that spot with a drive-in building on Nov. 13.
In the city sector, Seward City Administrator Greg Butcher talked about the citizen request for a face-covering ordinance at the city's Oct. 20 council meeting. He also brought up the co-authored piece in the Oct. 28 Seward County Independent that urged the community to come together and voluntarily make adjustments to keep businesses and schools open.
Jim Swanson in Utica seconded Butcher's thoughts on voluntary action. Swanson also said the town's senior center has closed to internal mingling. The senior center remains open for take-out meals but in-building meals and socializing indoors closed.
Dr. Josh Fields of Seward Public Schools said they've established a hinge point on staffing and what their benchmark would be before shifting entirely to e-learning.
Rev. Dr. Russel Sommerfeld said Concordia's experienced an uptick in cases among its students and staff. Administration has communicated with students about its desire to remain in-person until the semester break on Nov. 24.
