Dawes County Has 2 More COVID-19 Deaths

      A day after reporting Dawes County’s first COVID-19 death, Panhandle Unified Command on Tuesday listed two more.

All 3 are older men, 2 in their 70s and 1 in his 80s. All had pre-existing conditions.

       There have now been 14 coronavirus deaths in the Panhandle – 10 in Scotts Bluff County and 1 in Box Butte in addition to the 3 in Dawes County

       There were 107 new COVID-19 cases Tuesday with 32 more recoveries, pushing the number of positive cases over 2,000 to 2,064 and recoveries to 1,268  The number of active cases grew to 782, including 32 hospitalizations.

     Dawes County had just 1 new case for a total of 256 with 2 recoveries and 64 active cases along with the 2 deaths. 

       Chadron State College had a staff member recover and now has 4 active cases, all students, while the Chadron Public Schools have no active cases but 7 individuals in quarantine.

      Sheridan County added 5 new cases and has 45 active, Box Butte reported 6 new cases 118 active, and Sioux County remained at 2 active and 12 total cases. 

      Statewide, Nebraska Health and Human Services reported 877 new cases and 18 more deaths on Tuesday.

       The number of active cases set another new record, passing the 22,000 mark at 22,123. That includes 436 who are hospitalized, matching the record set on Saturday. There have been 65,376 total cases and 42,633 recoveries.  

      The availability of hospital beds in the state dropped to 31% for all beds and 33% for ICU beds while ventilators slipped to 75% availability.