Six Deaths From COVID-19 In PHS District

On Thursday, September 2, Public Health Solutions issued a statement indicating there had been six COVID-related deaths in the district. The report said, “The ages of the deceased range from 33-94 years old, five (5) males and one (1) female. Records show two (2) of the individuals had been fully vaccinated with four (4) being unvaccinated.” According to the PHS dashboard, there have been 170 COVID-positive cases confirmed in the district in the last 14 days. The PHS district includes Jefferson, Gage, Saline, Fillmore and Thayer counties. Currently, PHS does not break out the data by individual counties, except for Gage. At 11:50 p.m. on July 30, 2021 Nebraska Executive Order No. 20-15 expired. This order allowed PHS (and all local health departments) to “disclose specific data to the public, in a good faith effort to prevent and lessen a serious and imminent threat to the health or safety of a person or the public arising from or related to COVID-19.” With this order in place, PHS was allowed to release county-level data on testing numbers, positive case counts, etc. The expiration of this Executive Order prevents PHS from releasing this data at a county-level for any county with a population of less than 20,000. Currently, Gage is the only county in the PHS district with a population of more than 20,000. Gage County reports 57 confirmed COVID-positive cases in the last two weeks. Kim Showalter, PHS Health Director, said, “Hospitals within our district, like all hospitals across the state, are filling up. Many are experiencing not only higher numbers of COVID patients, but also other critical conditions requiring higher levels of care. Vaccination is a personal choice and we respect that. Protecting yourself, your family, and those in your community from becoming severely ill is also a personal choice. We urge all eligible residents in the district to become vaccinated. This is the best protection against becoming severely ill and requiring hospitalization if exposed to COVID-19.” According to PHS, as of September 2, 44.63 percent of the district, or 23,983 individuals, are fully vaccinated. On Tuesday, September 1, Governor Pete Ricketts held an afternoon press briefing to discuss the State’s collaborative work with hospitals to set up a statewide patient transfer plan. Similar coordination helped protect hospital capacity during the peak of the pandemic in November 2020. Given the staffing shortages hospitals are facing, the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) is working closely with them to re-institute the transfer plan.

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