Douglas County reached the highest COVID-19 test positivity rate of the pandemic last week at 15.4%. Dr. Andi Pour is the county’s health department director and said May’s higher rate is different because more testing is open to the public now.
"Last weekend we had two days where we had more than 300 cases a day," Pour said. "I thought I'd never see that. It's really quite disappointing and remarkable."
Dr. Pour’s comments came at Wednesday’s Board of Health meeting. She said as of Tuesday, more than 20,000 residents have tested positive for COVID-19, and 5,000 of those positive tests have come in the last three weeks.
She said she’s most concerned about hospitalizations in the Omaha area.
"I thought about this hard last night," Pour said. "Every fifth ICU bed is occupied by a COVID patient and every 10 general hospital beds is occupied by a COVID patient."
There are 141 total cases in schools in Douglas County; 83 of them are staff and 58 are students. Local health directors and the governor launched a new campaign this week called the three C’s to help combat the pandemic. It means be careful about crowded places, close contact, and confined spaces.