Cases up to 11 in southwest health district; still none in Chase County

    While the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases more than doubled the past week in the Southwest Nebraska Public Health Department, Chase County remains free of any.
    Confirmed cases grew from four to 11 in the district, with the latest ones recorded Saturday in Keith and Furnas counties.
    Health Department Director Myra Stoney said the Keith County case was ill at the end of March through early April and has been released from isolation by the state of Nebraska.
    She said anyone who may have been in contact with this person has already passed the incubation period and no further cases of illness have been reported.
    One of the new cases the past week was also reported in nearby Hitchcock County.
    The Hitchcock County case is a man in his 60s and was attributed to community spread, which means the exact source of his infection is unknown. Stoney said he was not hospitalized but is self-isolating.
    Stoney said it was difficult to say if, or when, cases will begin showing up in the other counties, including Chase.
    She noted that cases in Douglas County, which includes Omaha, are doubling every nine days.
    There appears to be no rule of thumb to determine how fast the disease spreads, Stoney said.
    “If there is, I don’t know what it is. What I will say is that if people are not following the rules, it’s going to spread faster than if they were following the rules,” she said.
    For example, Douglas County numbers were going down until a large family event was held—she wasn’t sure if it was a wedding or a funeral—and drew more than 100 people.
    “If people are following the guidelines, I like to think that’s what’s keeping our numbers down, and if they’re not traveling to areas with a lot of community spread, I would like to think that’s helping us keep our numbers down,” she said.
    The 11 cases in the SWNPHD include: four in Furnas County, four in Red Willow County, one in Frontier County, one in Hitchcock County and the recovered case in Keith County.
    Chase, Perkins, Dundy and Hayes counties remain the only four in the nine-county health district without confirmed cases.
Statewide numbers
    Total number of confirmed cases in Nebraska grew to 6,438 as of Wednesday morning out of 36,194 tested.
    Deaths in the state rose from 55 to 82 in a week’s time, Wednesday to Wednesday.