COVID Cases Surpass 2020 Peak in Nebraska, Hospital Treatments in Short Supply

Jan. 12, 2022, 3:32 p.m. ·

Nebraska Public Media Covid-19 Coronavirus Banner

COVID-19 cases in Nebraska surpassed the 2020 peak earlier this week. According to the most recent seven-day average from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Nebraska is averaging more than 3,300 new COVID-19 positives per day.

Dr. Jim Nora specializes in infectious disease at Bryan Health in Lincoln. For now, Dr. Nora said there aren’t as many COVID patients at Bryan compared to the previous peak in November 2020. He said some treatments aren’t supplied or useful anymore to treat omicron cases.

“Unfortunately, the treatments we had really come to depend on for the delta wave, such as monoclonal antibodies, many of those don’t work for the omicron variant,” Dr. Nora said. “The Sotrovimab, which does work, is in very short supply right now. Hopefully, that supply shortage will decrease over the next few weeks but it’s still going to leave a huge gap in treatment availability.”

When looking at South Africa, where the omicron variant originated, Dr. Nora said the rapid spike in cases for the country meant a similarly quick decline soon after. But, he worries how the current COVID-19 rise will stress Nebraska hospitals and the community.

As of yesterday, the state’s dashboard said 645 Nebraska are hospitalized with COVID-19.