Health District in South Central Nebraska Sees COVID Increase, Warns Weary Residents
By Jack Williams, Managing Editor and Reporter Nebraska Public Media News
July 23, 2020, 1:17 p.m. ·

A health district in south-central Nebraska has increased its COVID-19 risk dial to “high moderate” after a 27-percent increase in positive cases last week.
The South Heartland District had 19 new cases last week, with a total of 384 cases so far.
Executive Director Michele Bever is concerned about one particular disease indicator.
"Our weekly positivity rate for last week increased to 7.5% and it has been at 4.4% the week before and five weeks ago it was down below 1%," Bever said. "We’ve been watching it creep up. There was just one week in the last five where it went down a little bit."
Although there are currently no COVID-related hospitalizations in the four-county area, Bever warns residents to remain vigilant to make sure the disease doesn’t re-establish itself. That’s not always easy in times like these.
"People are just very weary of this whole process and the restrictions that have been in place," Bever said. "As we’ve moved from phase 2 to 3 with our directed health measures and there’s more activities that are allowed and fewer restrictions in place for gatherings and things, this has opened up more activity for us to have exposures."
The South Heartland Health District includes Adams, Clay, Nuckolls and Webster counties. So far, 11 people in that area have died as a result of COVID-19.