Dr. Gary Anthone discusses the current treatments for coronavirus.

As Gov. Pete Ricketts waits before implementing tighter pandemic restrictions, the number of Nebraskans dying from COVID-19 continues to climb to new levels.

Last week, the state documented the deaths of 122 Nebraskans from the coronavirus — setting a new weekly high for the fifth week in a row. The state recorded 74 deaths the previous week.

In just the last three weeks, Nebraska has suffered 28% of all its COVID-19 deaths. This week, Nebraska projects to cross 1,000 deaths from the virus.

Ricketts is holding out on increasing public health measures until Nebraska crosses a bar in a calculation: 25% of Nebraska’s staffed hospital beds must be filled with COVID-19 patients.

By Ricketts’ metric, Nebraska was short of that by 70 patients on Monday.

Ricketts: Nebraska may hit red zone for COVID restrictions before Thanksgiving

The governor acknowledged that he could move the state to the next level of public health measures yet this week. But he called the metric of hospitalizations his guiding star.

“That’s what we’re going to continue to do,” he said.

Even if stronger public health measures are put into place, Nebraska’s mortality rate and its death toll will continue to climb in the coming weeks, said Dr. Bob Rauner, president of Partnership for a Healthy Lincoln.

Nebraska’s hospitalizations also will head higher over the next couple of weeks, Rauner said.

Since last Tuesday, Nebraska’s hospitalizations have held between 961 and 987, staying below the rough count of 1,050 that Ricketts’ metric would require to increase restrictions.

But Rauner said that what’s happening behind the numbers shows that the health care system is bumping up against its capacity.

Rauner said he thinks hospitals are being more restrictive about the COVID patients they’re admitting and discharging them earlier, and nursing homes are keeping more of their patients in their own facilities. He said he expects the plateau to be temporary.

Nationally, as of Sunday, Nebraska’s rate of hospitalizations was second only to South Dakota’s.

For the last week, Nebraska added more than 16,000 new COVID cases — setting a weekly record for the eighth straight week. By Friday, Nebraska’s daily average of new cases reached 2,391.

Over the weekend, the seven-day daily average fell slightly — but it’s too soon to say whether Nebraska has sustainably fallen from a peak.

Douglas County also had a record high in cases last week: 4,436 new infections. In the last three weeks, the county has seen more than 12,000 new cases — one-third of its total cases for the entire pandemic.

The University of Nebraska Medical Center and a stream of health care professionals are warning that the health care system is already strained and that hospitals risk being overwhelmed by the virus.

David City mayor calls on emergency power to mandate masks

Many are calling for a statewide mask mandate — which Ricketts has refused to implement — and greater public health restrictions, including further limits on gatherings and indoor dining.

Ricketts, in a Monday press conference, said he has tried to allow people to live as normal a life as possible in the pandemic. He said he’s also trying to balance the coronavirus threat against restrictions that lead to higher suicides and drug overdoses and decreased vaccinations and cancer screenings.

In the absence of a state mask mandate, an increasing number of cities are enacting mask mandates themselves, including Norfolk on Monday.

Also Monday, several directors of local health departments said statewide policies that require masks and limits on crowds would help slow the virus spread. They spoke at a virtual press conference organized by the Nebraska Association of Local Health Directors.

Laura McDougall, director of the Four Corners Health Department in York, said cities and towns are going to great lengths to implement policies to require masks indoors, reduce density in gathering places and make recreational activities safer.

Without a statewide strategy, local communities have been working with local health departments to come up with their own grassroots patchwork of policies, ordinances and executive orders, she said.

“A statewide policy would be more effective and efficient,” McDougall said. “We need these policies to be universal to truly try to affect the statewide spread of COVID.”

Said Kim Engel, director of the Panhandle Public Health District: “Nebraskans must act quickly and decisively to ensure that we see universal masking statewide.”

World-Herald staff writer Julie Anderson contributed to this report.

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jeff.robb@owh.com, 402-444-1128

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Originally published on omaha.com, part of the BLOX Digital Content Exchange.

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