Nebraska’s COVID-19 State of Emergency Ending This Week

Nebraska will formally end its COVID-19 State of Emergency this week. Governor Pete Ricketts said Monday he will let the state’s current virus emergency that was implemented in March, 2020 expire as scheduled on Wednesday along with its remaining social-distancing guidelines that were made mandatory earlier in the pandemic.

“It’s time for people to get back to normal with the understanding that the virus will be here forever, just as other viruses will continue to be,” Ricketts says.

Ricketts says the state’s contract with TestNebraska for free public COVID-19 testing will end in July. The final day of testing will be available is July 18th. An executive order covering telehealth will expire August 27 when new laws passed earlier this year by the legislature take affect.

The Governor also said he expects schools to be at full capacity in the fall, with no mask mandates and no vaccine requirements. But the Governor encouraged Nebraska to get vaccinated.

Ricketts says his announcement Monday is possible because COVID-19 hospitalizations statewide are now down to 27. That’s less than one percent of all hospitalizations in the state.