As the number of COVID-19 cases continue to climb and hospitals are severely strained, Lincoln Lancaster County Health Director Pat Lopez announced Friday that the indoor mask mandate is coming back.
“It will go into effect just after midnight tonight and continues through February 11,” Lopez says. “It applies to everyone ages two and older regardless of vaccination status.”
Lopez says masks will be required in all indoor settings. She says the highly contagious Omicron variant is the most predominant threat right now.
Only eight percent of ICU beds were available as of Wednesday. Lopez says last week the number of new cases hit 2,900, which was a record high during the pandemic. She says they are already over 3,000 cases for this week.
The positivity rate is more than 27-percent.
The seven day rolling average of hospitalizations went from 115 on December 25th to 132 this week. As of Wednesday, only 8% of ICU hospital beds were available. Hospitalizations went from the orange range on the COVID-19 risk dial into the red.
There were 2,900 new cases reported last week. So far this week, that number is over 3,000 with several days to go. Case numbers totaled 736 on Wednesday alone.
Lopez recommends that people only leave their home for work and school, to get food, for medical appointments or to get vaccinated. If you don’t feel well and show symptoms, get tested.
Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird says schools and hospitals are in crisis. She says tough decisions will need to be made in the coming weeks to lower the positivity rate.
Gaylor Baird says, “Anyone who is scheduled to host a civic club meeting, a wedding, banquet, luncheon, or any in-person event that is in doors but not distanced and masked, particularly if it involves a meal where people typically remove their masks, consider postponing it until we past this crisis. The sacrifice is small compared to what our front line health care workers are experiencing right now.”