Douglas County Health Director’s COVID-19 Update Includes Groundbreaking Case Data

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) – The Douglas County health director provided an update on the local response to COVID-19 on Tuesday, noting the increase in cases and data on groundbreaking cases in the county.

Dr Lindsay Huse said about 0.54% of the 306,736 people in Douglas County have suffered a breakthrough COVID-19 infection.

“Really what this tells you is that the vaccine does a very good job of keeping people healthy,” Dr Huse told the Douglas County Board of Commissioners Tuesday. “When people get COVID, even if they’ve been vaccinated, (these) cases are extremely mild. Usually this prevents people from going to the hospital and people from having access to ventilators; and the most important thing is to keep people alive.

The county health director said the numbers are now a bit worse than around this time last year, but we’re also waging a different COVID war than a year ago.

“I think we have a lot of tools at our disposal now that we didn’t have last year,” Dr Huse said. “We didn’t have a vaccine last year. We saw our elderly population fighting mightily against this virus. We don’t necessarily have the same fight. Unfortunately, the virus is now starting to impact younger populations, so the fight is on this new ground that we need to examine. “

Dr Huse said the county is experiencing its fourth wave.

“The point is, school just started two weeks ago. We had our first big round of soccer games last weekend. Fortunately, you are outside, but even when you are in these gathering places you can still spread yourself, ”she said, noting that many other school activities and community events also encourage gatherings.

She said the health department will closely monitor the data and continue to encourage the community to use the tools they know to mitigate the spread in the community: masking, hand washing, social distancing and vaccinations.

“It’s entirely possible that this is a hang-up, and we’ll continue to see an increase – and that makes it even more important that we continue to use the mitigating factors that we have to help limit the spread, ”Dr. Huse said. .

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