COVID-19 ticked up last week in Nebraska as omicron subvariants continue to fuel a spring virus rise.
An average of 86 people were hospitalized with COVID in Nebraska for the week ending Saturday, up 19% from 72 a week earlier, according to figures from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Statewide case numbers were down slightly last week, according to the CDC, but that appeared to be due to a delay in reporting some positive test results over the Memorial Day weekend. Daily numbers earlier in the week suggest cases were up about 10% from the previous week, which would mark the seventh straight weekly increase in Nebraska.
The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services' respiratory illness dashboard indicated that the state recorded 2,017 new COVID cases for the week ending May 28. That also represents an increase from the preceding week. The positivity rate of 11.6% also was up significantly from 5.1% at the end of April.
The dashboard is updated weekly on Tuesdays with data on COVID-19, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, a department spokesman said in an email.
The dashboard does not include data on hospital capacity or the share of hospital beds used by COVID patients, as the agency has reported in the past.
The department, the spokesman wrote, is still tracking other data internally on a daily basis.
The monitoring of virus levels in wastewater in Douglas County and at most other sites across the state also confirms that COVID case numbers continued to climb last week.
On a per-capita basis, virus levels in Nebraska last week still ranked among the lowest in the country. Virus levels and hospitalizations also continue to be a small fraction of levels seen when the omicron variant peaked in Nebraska earlier this year.
The nation as a whole is averaging 110,000 new cases a day, according to the CDC. While cases appear to be leveling off in the Northeast, they have begun to pick up in parts of the West and South.
However, it's widely recognized that official case counts are undercounting the true number of infections. Many more people are using the now widely available at-home tests, which are not routinely included in official tallies. The Douglas County Health Department has a link to a form on its website where residents can report results from at-home tests, but those outcomes are not included in official counts.
Exactly how many cases are going under the radar isn't known. But researchers at the City University of New York estimated in a recent study that the true number of infections in New York City from April to May was 31 times higher than official case counts. The study has not been officially reviewed by other scientists.
Health officials continue to encourage people who haven't been vaccinated to get their shots. Those who have been vaccinated, they say, should get boosters. People ages 50 and older and those who are immune compromised are eligible for a fourth shot.