There will be no new report today on Nebraska’s COVID-19 Dashboard as Health and Human Services changes the schedule from evening postings to morning postings, starting Friday around 9:00 am.
Another big change at that time deals with the daily positive cases report. Instead of using the lab report date, the state will use the date the test swab was collected.
Officials say it will offer a more accurate view of the number of positive cases at collection time.
The last afternoon report was Wednesday with 662 new confirmed cases, 263 recoveries, and 12 deaths for 53,398 active cases. There have been 188,748 total cases with 133,469 recoveries and 1,917 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
Nebraska has 343 hospitalized COVID-19 victims, the fewest since Oct 17, with 32% of the state’s hospital beds, 36% of ICU beds, and 77% of ventilators available.
Another 27,084 doses of coronavirus vaccine were distributed Wed, bringing the total to 248,741, with 153,231 vaccinations administered. 34,178 people have received the 2 doses needed for maximum protection.
Panhandle Unified Command recorded 15 new confirmed cases for a total of 8,294 including 230 in the last 14 days. The number of deaths has remained at 173 for over a week and only 10 patients are currently hospitalized. 4,845 Panhandle residents have been vaccinated so far.
Dawes County added 7 new cases for a total of 638 with 36 in the last 14 days and 17 deaths. Chadron State College now has 14 active cases, 10 of them students, and 182 total cases, with 145 of those students.
Sheridan County has 458 cases, 18 in the last 2 weeks, and 13 deaths. Box Butte County stands at 884 cases, 21 in the last 14 days, and 8 deaths while Sioux County has had 29 cases, 3 in the last 2 weeks, and 1 death.