NEBRASKA- Nebraska’s tally of new COVID-19 cases rose last week for the ninth straight week, fueled by the continued rise of the delta variant.

The state tallied 3,755 new cases during the week ending Friday, up from 2,668 the previous week. That 41% increase was the ninth-highest week-over-week increase in the nation, according to a World-Herald analysis of data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Nebraska still ranks only 33rd in the nation in per-capita case counts, having started its summer surge well behind many other states. The state’s per-capita case tally remains about one-third below the national rate.

But weekly case counts now are at their highest sustained level since February and have topped counts during the original surge in spring 2020.

Nebraska Medicine announced Monday that it would no longer allow visitors into the emergency room at the Nebraska Medical Center because of increasing cases in the community and the delta variant’s higher transmission rates. ER patients who are minors can be accompanied by one visitor at all times. No changes were made to visitor guidelines for the Bellevue Medical Center’s ER or to inpatient and outpatient visitor policies.

Asked Monday whether the governor had any plans to limit gatherings or relaunch the TestNebraska testing program, Taylor Gage, a Ricketts spokesman, wrote in an email: “The State of Nebraska’s goal has always been to protect hospital capacity, and we remain focused on that measure. Working together, Nebraskans have successfully protected hospital capacity over the last year and a half.”

Gage also wrote that he had no announcement about the state’s data dashboard, which went dark at the end of June with the expiration of the state’s COVID-19 state of emergency.

For the full article click HERE