Douglas County’s Health Director said Tuesday that although new cases of COVID-19 are dropping, the people getting the disease are skewing younger. Dr. Adi Pour told Douglas County Commissioners that new daily cases fell under 50 over the weekend and continue to trend downward, but the age group most affected by the virus is changing.
“25% of those new cases are in 0-19 year olds, 21% in those 20-29 and 20% are in those 30-39,” Pour said. “So in total, 66% of the cases are 0-39.”
Pour said one reason more younger people are testing positive is because variants of the virus seem to affect them more than the original virus and instead of being asymptomatic, they’re getting sick.
“The younger people who have been infected with the variant are more symptomatic so that means when they are symptomatic, they go and get tested and that’s why I think we see an increase in cases at this time,” she said.
40% of Douglas County residents are fully vaccinated, the second highest rate in the state behind Lancaster County. 32% of residents 16-19 years old have received at least one vaccination shot. Health officials will hold a number of vaccination clinics at Omaha-area high schools this week to get that number higher.