New variant means increased COVID infections here
WAYNE – The presence of the omicron variant of COVID-19 has been confirmed in the Northeast Nebraska Public Health Department’s four-county district through lab testing.
Although the omicron variant tends to cause milder symptoms, it has the potential to infect many more people than its predecessor, the delta variant, and thus cause increased problems, according to the health department.
NNPHD Health Director Julie Rother noted people tend to think that a milder disease is a good thing.
“It’s a good thing in a lot of ways, but when it’s more infectious, it’s kind of deceiving,” Rother said. “Because if you do the math, when you have something more infectious, then you have that many more people that are positive with it.
“Having that many more people positive with it, that number would be greater than if you had a less infectious virus making people sick,” she said.
The health department serves Cedar, Dixon, Thurston and Wayne counties in northeast Nebraska. The omicron variant is the predominant strain statewide.
“At this point, I can only tell you it’s in our district,” Rother said. “There’s been an incredible increase in the number of cases in the last couple of weeks. It’s really confirmed what we thought was going on. It’s probably in every county.”
She noted that the NNPHD’s number of coronavirus cases has more than tripled since the end of December.
“That just says to us it’s the more infectious strain,” Rother said. “Now we have confirmation that it’s truly out there.”
The omicron variant’s ability to cause more illness is thought to be due to its ability to be much more easily transmitted than the delta variant and has shown to be able to cause illness in people who have been vaccinated or who have caught COVID-19 in the past.
“When a virus variant causes many more people to be sick, that increases the number of people who could potentially become severely ill and need hospitalization,” Rother said.
“Increased case numbers can also lead to decreased numbers of employees who are able to work, including the number of health care workers available to staff hospitals,” she said. “Our local, state and national health care system is currently overburdened due to COVID-19.”
The good news is that the Nebraska data are showing that being fully vaccinated and getting a booster shot are still helping to prevent severe illness and the need for hospitalization.
Over the past month, unvaccinated people were eight times more likely to be hospitalized with the coronavirus than fully vaccinated people and 36 times more likely to be hospitalized than people who had gotten booster shots.
For the week of Dec. 26-Jan. 1, the NNPHD recorded 56 new positive COVID-19 cases in its district. The next week brought 189 new cases. Another 455 new cases were recorded for Jan. 9-15.
In Cedar County alone, the number of new positive coronavirus cases has increased from 19 for Dec. 26-Jan. 1, to 50 for Jan. 2-8, to 103 for Jan. 9-15.
New positive COVID-19 cases have increased more than eight times since Jan. 1 in the health department's district.
No specific coronavirus variant was identified for causing the recent increase in cases.
“The data’s pretty alarming,” Rother said. “There’s been a drastic sharp increase in the number of cases and not the same in the percent immunized.”
As of Monday, Jan. 17, only 50.3 percent of eligible residents in the health department’s district are fully vaccinated - including 43.6 percent of that population in Cedar County itself - and approximately 20 percent have received their booster shot.
“Fifty percent is not really that great,” Rother said. “Unfortunately, we see more hospitalizations coming up.”
In addition to getting vaccinated, health department officials still encourage people to wear masks, follow social-distancing guidelines and avoid crowded places while out in public, as well as stay home when they have even mild illness symptoms.
COVID-19 VACCINES
If people have not yet gotten their COVID-19 vaccine or their booster shot and would like to lessen their chance of becoming severely ill from the coronavirus’ omicron variant, there are many places offering the vaccine for free.
Several pharmacies in the Northeast Nebraska Public Health Department’s four-county district offer the COVID-19 vaccine, including Steffen Drug in Hartington as do some clinics.
Both the Northeast Nebraska Community Action Partnership and NNPHD offer the coronavirus vaccine at various places in the health department’s district.
People are encouraged to contact the Wayne-based health department at 402-375-2200 or 800-375-2260 or visit the NNPHD website at www.nnphd. org or Facebook page for more information on where and how to access the COVID-19 vaccine.