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Lincoln hosted its first mass COVID-19 vaccination clinic in several months Tuesday as cases have started to slowly rise both locally and statewide.
Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Director Pat Lopez said she expected the department to give close to 4,000 shots over the two-day clinic scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday at Pinnacle Bank Arena.
The clinic was billed as being specifically for people eligible for their second booster shots, but it was open to anyone eligible for a vaccine, whether that’s a first or second shot or a first or second booster.
The clinic was not scheduled because of an increase in COVID-19 cases, but it does come at a time when they have been steadily rising.
Lancaster County recorded 105 cases last week, the first time in six weeks the weekly total exceeded 100, although Lopez said nine of the cases were delayed reports from several months ago.
Weekly case numbers have now risen more than 50% since bottoming out at 62 the week ending April 2 and appear as if they will rise higher again this week. As of Tuesday, there were already 49 cases this week. Despite the rising cases, the city’s COVID-19 risk dial remained in the green, or low-risk, range for the sixth week in a row.
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Local numbers are similar to those statewide. According to the Department of Health and Human Services’ COVID-19 dashboard, there were 647 cases in the week that ended Sunday. That was up from 501 in the previous week and 460 the week before that.
The rise in cases appears to be driven by the rise of the omicron BA.2 variant, which has driven increases in other countries and other parts of the U.S.
Last week, for the first time, the BA.2 variant made up half of all Nebraska COVID-19 cases that went through genetic sequencing. Lopez said 38 cases of the variant have been reported so far in Lancaster County.
Dr. James Lawler, a co-executive director of the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s Global Center for Health Security, said the BA.2 variant is likely very widespread in the state now.
“I think everything that we’re seeing recently is BA.2,” he said. “We’ve basically reached the point where BA.2 is supplanting the other variants.”
There’s fairly strong agreement among health experts that tracking case numbers may not be the best way to gauge the scope of current outbreaks and surges, for a number of reasons.
One is that home COVID-19 tests are now widely available and many people are using those instead of getting a test at a doctor’s office, pharmacy or testing center, and they either can’t or choose not to report the result to local health officials.
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In Lancaster County, people can report their home test results to the Health Department, and Lopez said 113 people have so far, with 83 of them testing positive. But those results are not included in the case numbers the department reports to the public.
Dr. Bob Rauner, president of Partnership for a Healthy Lincoln, said that tracking reported cases through numbers reported by the Health Department, Lincoln Public Schools and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln is still a good way to monitor the pandemic’s trajectory, but “all are imperfect, because so many people are testing at home and not reporting their results, so it’s also important to look at positivity rates.”
By that metric, conditions look more dire locally. Lancaster County’s test positivity rate jumped to 6.6% last week, nearly double the previous week and the highest level in two months. That was much higher than the statewide rate, which rose from 3.3% to 4.4%.
However, other measures don’t look as bad. For example, wastewater surveillance data reported weekly by the state has not shown any significant increases over the past several weeks, either in Lincoln or in other cities where monitoring occurs.
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Hospitalizations also have not shown any significant increase. As of Monday night, there were 61 COVID-19 hospitalizations statewide. That was up from 53 on Sunday but down from 62 on Friday and well within the range of where hospital numbers have been over the past month.
Locally, there were 24 hospitalizations reported Tuesday, and Lopez said they have averaged about 16 a day over the past week. According to the county’s COVID-19 dashboard, daily hospitalizations have not topped 25 since March 21.
The hospital numbers may be a bit misleading, though.
“I don’t think we’ve had enough time for cases to turn into hospitalizations,” Lawler said.
He said that based on what has happened in other countries, he would expect a significant rise in hospitalizations in Nebraska if there is a significant rise in cases.
Lawler did emphasize, though, that vaccination remains the best way for people to avoid getting sick and avoid winding up in the hospital if they do, and that includes people getting a first or second booster as soon as possible if they are eligible.
That’s the same message Lopez gave Tuesday.
She said she was encouraged by the number of people showing up to the vaccine clinic to get a booster shot and by the county’s overall rate of 60% of booster-eligible people having gotten one. But she also admitted there’s a long way to go.
“We still have a lot of people to reach,” Lopez said.
COVID-19 cases holding steady in Lincoln, statewide
Photos: COVID death toll in US likely to surpass 1 million soon

Adam Almonte sits on a bench overlooking the Hudson River where he used to sit and eat tuna sandwiches with his older brother, Fernando Morales, in Fort Tryon Park in New York, Wednesday, March 16, 2022. On the deadliest day of a horrific week in April 2020, COVID-19 took the lives of 816 people in New York City alone. Lost in the blizzard of pandemic data that’s been swirling ever since is the fact that 43-year-old Morales was one of them. Soon, likely in the next few weeks, the U.S. toll from the coronavirus will surpass 1 million. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Maryln Curtis, right, aunt of Jennifer McClung, holds hands with her husband, Jim Curtis, at Jennifer’s mother’s home in Muscle Shoals, Ala., Monday, March 7, 2022. At Helen Keller Hospital staffers knew McClung, a longtime dialysis nurse, as “Mama Jen.” When new nurses started, she took them under her wing. Some nights, she woke up crying with worry about her patients, her family says. On Dec. 14, 2020, her lungs severely damaged by the virus, McClung died of COVID-19, just hours before the nation’s vaccination campaign began. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

A photo of Neil Lawyer sits on the piano as his son, David Lawyer, plays in his home in Bellevue, Wash., Sunday, March 20, 2022. When the elder Lawyer died of complications from COVID-19 on March 8, 2020, the U.S. toll stood at 30. At weddings, he joined his sons to serenade brides and grooms in a makeshift ensemble dubbed the Moose-Tones. Last October, when one of his granddaughters married, it marked the first family affair without Lawyer there to hold court. The Moose-Tones went on without him. “He would have just been beaming because, you know, it was the most important thing in the world to him late in life, to get together with family,” David says. “I can honestly tell you he was terribly missed.” (AP Photo/David Goldman)

David Lawyer holds a photo of the house his father, Neil Lawyer, was born in while standing outside the last house he owned, Sunday, March 20, 2022, in Bellevue, Wash. Lawyer, 84, died on March 8, 2020, among the first residents of an area nursing home who succumbed to COVID-19 during the outbreak. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Cathie Quackenbush, right, comforts her daughter, Macy Sweeters, over the loss of her father and Cathie’s husband, Larry, to COVID-19, at their home in Springfield, Mo., Tuesday, March 22, 2022. “Everybody who met him just loved him,” says Sweeters. “It just hurts so much. He was my best friend.” (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Yolanda Bay stands next to a photo of her husband, Luis Alfonso Bay Montgomery, lower right, at their home in San Luis, Ariz., Saturday, March 19, 2022. Montgomery, 59, died from COVID on July 18, 2020. “It’s time to get rid of his clothes, but …,” she says, unable to finish the sentence. “There are times that I feel completely alone. And I still can’t believe it.” (AP Photo/David Goldman)

A billboard put up by ShiVanda Peebles celebrates what would have been her husband Sherman’s 50th birthday, in Columbus, Ga., Wednesday, March 9, 2022. Sherman Peebles doted on his wife, his sweetheart since high school. The couple ran a business together but their partnership was much more. After ShiVanda had a kidney transplant, he turned their trips to Atlanta for continued care into mini-vacations, taking her to Braves games and out for dinner. “He called me his queen,” she says. Sherman Peebles died at age 49 from COVID in September. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Photos of Jennifer McClung sit on a table at the home of her mother, Stella Olive, left, sitting with her daughter, Tracee Jenkins, center, and Jennifer’s daughter, Mary, right, in Muscle Shoals, Ala., Monday, March 7, 2022. On Dec.14, 2020 the nation’s first COVID vaccine was administered. But the vaccines had arrived too late to save McClung, a long time dialysis nurse. In November, McClung, 54, had tested positive. Her lungs severely damaged by the virus, she died just hours before the nation’s vaccination campaign began. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

ShiVanda Peebles poses for a portrait as a photo of her with her husband, Sherman, hangs on the wall next to his sheriff’s uniform at their home in Columbus, Ga., Tuesday, March 8, 2022. In late September, as Sherman Peebles lay in the hospital, the U.S. toll topped 675,000, surpassing the number of Americans killed by the Spanish flu pandemic a century ago. He died the following day. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Landon Quackenbush, 13, right, lies on the couch next to a photo of him and his father, Larry Quackenbush, at their home in Springfield, Mo., Tuesday, March 22, 2022. Larry, 60, was the glue that held his family together. He got sick with COVID-19 after Landon arrived home from summer camp in July. First Larry, then his wife were rushed to the hospital. She was able to return home a day later, but her husband remained, tethered to a ventilator. He died on Aug. 3. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Karen McCulloch, left, and her daughter, Kirsten, hold a photo of Karen’s mother, Mary Jacq McCulloch, at the North Carolina Botanical Garden where they used to bring her on outings from her nursing home, Thursday, March 10, 2022, in Chapel Hill, N.C. Mary Jacq’s death came at the height of a North Carolina spring. Now, with the season here again, Karen is reminded of their drives together to gaze at the trees in blossom. Mary Jacq’s favorite were the redbuds. “They are stunning magenta,” Karen says. “I can’t see one in bloom without thinking, ‘Mom would love this.’ Kind of like her, brightly colored and demanding attention.” (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Larry Mass looks up at a portrait of him and his longtime partner, Arnie Kantrowitz, in their apartment in New York, Thursday, March 17, 2022. Mass worried about his partner, whose immune system was weakened by anti-rejection drugs required after a kidney transplant. For months, Kantrowitz, a retired professor and noted gay rights activist, took refuge on their couch, watching favorite Bette Davis movies with Mass by his side. Kantrowitz died of complications from COVID on January 21, as the toll moved nearer to 1 million. “He’s still with me,” Mass says. “He’s there in my heart.” (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Gerald Riley stands for a portrait over the chair of his best friend and fellow barber, Sherman Peebles, at his barber shop in Columbus, Ga., Wednesday, March 9, 2022. Months after Peebles died from COVID, Riley still arrives at the shop each Saturday expecting to see Peebles’ truck parked outside. At day’s end, he thinks back to the routine he and his friend of more than 20 years always followed when closing. “I love you, brother,” they’d tell one another. How could Riley have known those would be the last words they’d ever share? (AP Photo/David Goldman)

The hat of Luis Alfonso Bay Montgomery, second from left in family photo, hangs on the bed as his wife, Yolanda Bay, stands in their bedroom in San Luis, Ariz., Saturday, March 19, 2022. Montgomery, 59, had worked straight through the pandemic’s early months, piloting a tractor through the lettuce and cauliflower fields. Even after he began feeling sick in mid-June, he insisted on laboring on, said Bay, his wife of 42 years. By the time he was rushed to a hospital two weeks later, he required intubation, his body racked by the virus and a heart attack. He died on July 18, 2020 and for the first time since they’d met as teenagers in their native Mexico, Bay was on her own. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Cathie Quackenbush, right, sits on the couch with her children, Landon, 13, and Macy Sweeters, at their home in Springfield, Mo., Tuesday, March 22, 2022. Larry Quackenbush, 60, was the glue that held his family together. After his wife, Cathie, suffered brain damage in a car accident more than 20 years ago, he became the primary cook, carpooler and caregiver, while continuing to work. When Landon, came home from summer camp sick with COVID, Quackenbush stepped up again. “Even when he started feeling sick, he kept taking care of everybody,” Sweeters says. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Killian McClung, 3, plays on a memorial quilt for his grandmother, Jennifer McClung, as her mother, Stella Olive, reflected in mirror, looks on at her home in Muscle Shoals, Ala., Monday, March 7, 2022. One of McClung’s greatest joys was caring for Killian, whom she called her “grandblessing.” When he asked where she’d gone, family members made him a book showing McClung dressed like an astronaut, smiling back from space. On Dec. 14, 2020, McClung, a nurse, died of COVID-19, just hours before the nation’s vaccination campaign began. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Karen McCulloch, left, and her daughter, Kirsten, look over photos of Karen’s mother, Mary Jacq McCulloch, in their home, Thursday, March 10, 2022, in Hillsborough, N.C. At first the virus appeared to bypass Mary Jacq, who tested negative after others in her Chapel Hill, North Carolina nursing home were quarantined. When the 87-year-old became sick, her children, all grown, gathered at her bedside and by phone. McCulloch died the next afternoon, April 21, 2020. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Karen McCulloch, left, embraces her daughter, Kirsten, as she wears her grandmother’s robe in their home, Thursday, March 10, 2022, in Hillsborough, N.C. Mary Jacq McCulloch had long been the spark plug of her family, prone to dancing in supermarket aisles and striking up conversations with complete strangers. “She was really goofy,” says her granddaughter who regularly wears the robe around the house. “I wish I could give her one more hug or hold her hand again.” McCulloch, 87, died from COVID on April 21, 2020. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
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On Twitter @LincolnBizBuzz.
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