OMAHA- With some appointments still open at its clinics, the Douglas County Health Department may be ready to begin vaccinating people younger than 65 next week, its director said Wednesday.
With that in mind, Adi Pour urged county residents 65 and older and those on the state’s list of essential workers who haven’t yet been vaccinated to go to the health department’s website to register or call 402-444-3400 for help getting signed up. “I am thinking next week we may be ready to lower our age range in the community,” Pour told the Douglas County Board of Health.
Pour earlier said she expected to begin vaccinating people in the next age bracket — those 64 to 50, working downward in five-year increments — by April 1. If the department begins vaccinating people ages 60 to 64, she said, it also would begin inoculating some of those with high-risk medical conditions. Health systems are working to prioritize those conditions. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds annouced this week that all Iowa residents will be eligible starting April 5th.
As vaccines continue to rollout the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services said Wednesday. The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services said Wednesday night that two people in Douglas County have tested positive for the so-called Brazil P.1 variant. That coronavirus strain is believed to be responsible for a surge in hospitalizations in Brazil even though many people there had already caught COVID-19 and developed antibodies against it.
Dr. James Lawler, a director of the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s Global Center for Health Security, said that while the arrival of the Brazil variant in the metro area was expected, it is concerning. This strain of virus appears to be more transmissible and may make people more severely ill, he said.
“We are concerned that some of the new variants, including P.1, may cause more severe disease among young people,” he said. Additionally, people who have previously had COVID-19 may not have as much protection against it as they have against the original strain.