NEBRASKA- In a letter sent to Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts on Wednesday, 11 state senators requested the reinstatement of the state’s COVID-19 dashboard.

The state stopped publishing COVID-19 data to the online dashboard at the end of June.

The recent expiration of an executive order also prevents Nebraska’s health districts from publicly reporting COVID-19 statistics, such as case numbers and vaccinations, for counties with fewer than 20,000 people, according to a federal “safe harbor” standard, which the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services is following now that the executive order has expired.

In their letter, Sens. Machaela Cavanaugh, Jen Day, Megan Hunt, John McCollister, Terrell McKinney, Carol Blood, Matt Hansen, John Cavanaugh, Patty Pansing Brooks, Tony Vargas and Adam Morfeld noted a rise in infections and hospitalizations.

“Businesses, organizations, and school districts are struggling to make informed decisions about how best to run their day-to-day activities, as well as make long-term plans based on existing incomplete data,” the letter states.

The Department of Health and Human Services does produce a weekly report that provides some information about cases, deaths, hospitalizations and vaccines.

The senators contend that the current weekly report shared by the state lacks “crucial detailed information” such as county-by-county infection rates, COVID-19-related deaths, daily available hospital beds, respirators and overall staffed beds, according to the letter.

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