6 New COVID Cases In Kimball County

Kate Tyner, BSN, RN, CIC with Nebraska Infection Control Assessment and Promotion Program (ICAP) joined the Monday, May 24 Panhandle briefing to provide additional understanding and recommendations for fully vaccinated people.

“People that have received their COVID vaccine are similar to wearing a fireproof suit,” Tyner explained. “For those that have their fireproof suit, it’s become a lot safer to go to restaurants, bars, and public places. For anyone that hasn’t gotten vaccinated, they still have the risk of getting COVID.”

That is certainly a risk in Kimball County, where six new COVID cases were reported over the previous week – among the highest county numbers in the Panhandle.

Deuel County had eight cases, Scotts Bluff County seven, Box Butte County six, Sheridan County five and Morrill County four.

While people are trying to embrace moving forward, the vaccine is a huge part of safely returning to normalcy.

Things are starting to look a lot safer for people that are vaccinated but there are still certain restrictions in healthcare settings and through Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for nursing homes for the safety of patients, residents, and elders living in congregant living settings. This is due to people in these settings being in closer proximity to one another and at higher rates of living with chronic health conditions. COVID remains a risk through an unvaccinated person bringing it in.

“We hope that as community cases continue to go down and vaccination rates continue to go up, the federal requirements from CMS will continue to loosen,” Tyner concluded.

Governor Ricketts announced today the ending of the Governor’s Directed Health Measure effective at 11:59pm. Throughout the Panhandle, the same processes for contact tracing, quarantine, and isolation will continue as it remains needed to stop the spread of COVID.

Pizer is available in the Panhandle and anyone 12 and older can get vaccinated.

There is no charge for the vaccine.