LINCOLN — Gov. Pete Ricketts issued a pre-holiday warning to Nebraskans on Monday, December 20 urging them to get vaccinated, tested, and, if necessary, seek monoclonal antibody treatments for COVID-19 as the state sees a spike in cases.

But Ricketts and Dr. Gary Anthone, the state’s chief medical officer, stopped short of joining one of the state’s top infectious disease experts, who said the state is facing its most dangerous scenario since the coronavirus arrived.

Dr. James Lawler, a co-executive director of the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s Global Center for Health Security, said omicron has an explosive growth rate in the communities where it has been introduced — faster than any previous COVID-19 variant.

The omicron variant appears to pass more easily from person to person, Lawler said, and it seems to cause disease more quickly. Its incubation time also appears to be shorter.

“The math catches up to you very quickly,” he said. “So even if omicron is half as lethal or a third as lethal as delta, if the transmission data hold up, we’ll get far more hospitalizations and deaths from omicron than delta.”

Ricketts, who has opposed vaccine and mask mandates, said he called the press briefing on COVID-19 as a pre-holiday reminder to get vaccinated, not because he expects a big surge ahead.

He said the “primary line of defense” against the pandemic remains vaccination. Nine out of 10 people in hospitals are not vaccinated, said Ricketts, who has been vaccinated and received a booster.

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