COVID-19 on the Rise Again

While the pandemic has been declared over, COVID-19 (coronavirus) remains a threat. Nebraska is seeing a recent uptick in COVID-19 cases, including Jefferson CountyLana Likens, Public Relations Director for Jefferson Community Health and Life (JCH&L), told FJN, “The number of diagnosed cases of COVID has been rising in Jefferson County recently. Because of that, Gardenside is requiring all visitors and staff to mask when entering Gardenside, as of Nov. 17. Currently there are no COVID-related symptoms in Gardenside, but precautions are being taken because of cases of COVID in the surrounding community.”JCH&L hospital and clinic are requiring masks only when a patient or visitor has cold or flu-like symptoms. With certain types of symptoms, the clinic may ask patients to use the negative pressure entrance on the south side of the building.According to the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC), there are currently more than 10,374 patients hospitalized in the United States per week, with 15 percent of those being ICU patients. The most recent data on the test positivity rate is from the week ending November 4, which was 8.5 percent. When test positivity is above 5 percent, transmission is considered uncontrolled.It should be noted that since many are using home tests that are not reported through public health or are not testing at all, the official case counts underestimate the actual prevalence of COVID-19.There are multiple variants of the COVID-19 virus. Currently, the dominant variant nationwide is HV.1, with 29 percent of cases, followed by EG.5, with 21.7 percent of cases, and FL.1.5.1, with 9.3 percent of cases.“The original omicron variant is gone now,” said infectious diseases expert Dr. Mark Rupp. “Currently subvariants of omicron are circulating, including EG.5, XBB.1.16.6, and XBB.1.16.11.”

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