The Superior Express -

Michele Bever, South Heartland District Health Department (SHDHD) executive director, reported on Friday COVID-19 cases are rising sharply, more long-term care facilities are experiencing outbreaks and virus levels in wastewater have climbed to very high levels.

The health district is also seeing increasing numbers of influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) cases, along with rising numbers of patients hospitalized for these respiratory illnesses and for COVID-19.

“We’ve seen sharp increases in COVID-19 cases in our district in the last several weeks,” Bever said. “On Thursday, our 7-day case rate is 285 cases per 100,000, 2.85 times higher than the “high” threshold of 100 cases per 100,000. And, this doesn’t even include any of the at-home COVID-19 test kit results, because those are not reported to us.”

Bever said rates of influenza and RSV were also increasing locally, according to the most recent Weekly Influenza (Flu) Report posted by Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services for the week ending Nov.19. “The South Heartland influenza case rate that week, which is two weeks old, had increased to 17.5 per 100,000. This was comparable to many other rural health districts in Nebraska. But, for RSV, our case rate that week was 65.7 per 100,000 – the second highest rate in the state.”

Bever reported that local healthcare and long-term care facilities are seeing the effects of this high-level community transmission of respiratory viruses. Five long-term care facilities have reported staff or residents testing positive for COVID in the past two weeks, with some of these experiencing significant outbreaks among staff and residents.

According to Bever, the district hospital census for respiratory illnesses has more than doubled in the past three weeks. She said this includes admissions for COVID-19, influenza and RSV, and it includes patients less than 1 year old and up to 90 years of age.

“It’s not too late to get up to date on vaccinations to protect against severe COVID-19 and influenza illnesses. None of the patients hospitalized last week for severe COVID illness were up to date on their COVID vaccines. Staying up to date on COVID vaccines includes getting the bivalent COVID-19 booster vaccine,” she said.

“And, there’s never a wrong time to practice good hygiene and preventative steps to reduce the spread of any of these respiratory illnesses, especially RSV, for which there is no vaccine,” she said.