More Nebraska cities adopting mask orders as outbreak rages
More Nebraska cities are making moves to require faces coverings in public as the coronavirus outbreak worsens in the state and across the country.
By News Channel NebraskaOMAHA, Neb. (AP) — More Nebraska cities are making moves to require faces coverings in public as the coronavirus outbreak worsens in the state and across the country.
The Omaha suburbs of Bellevue, Papillion, Ralston, Gretna and La Vista are either weighing or have scheduled emergency meetings to consider requiring masks in public. Earlier in the week, the cities of Beatrice, Fairbury and Kearney passed mask mandates. Grand Island will consider doing so next week.
The uptick in such mandates comes as Nebraska set a record for hospitalizations across the state on Thursday, with 983 people hospitalized. That outpaced the previous record of 978 hospitalizations on Tuesday.
The state reported its third-highest daily total of new confirmed cases on Thursday at 2,663, which raised its overall total since the pandemic began to 109,280. The state recorded 28 new deaths on Thursday, raising Nebraska’s COVID-19 death total to 854, according to the state’s online virus tracker.
Nebraska has the fifth-highest rate of infection in the country. Over the past week, one out of every 115 people in the state was diagnosed with COVID-19, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Nebraska has risen over the past two weeks from roughly 1,335 new cases per day on Nov. 5 to 2,382 new cases per day as of Thursday.