Nebraska’s COVID-19 case total jumped to 409 today while city officials make a significant announcement asking local businesses to shift their resources toward making cloth masks and other essential items.
“I urge all businesses that have the capacity and capability to do so to shift their operations towards making essentials, especially gowns, masks, and face coverings,” Leirion Gaylor Baird, Lincoln’s mayor, said during her daily news update.
Baird, with the backing of the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department, is asking and emphasizing residents wear a mask anytime you’re outside.
“Cloth face coverings are a supplement to, not a substitute for, these important disease prevention measures we must all continue to practice,” Baird said.
There are several options to make homemade masks.
“A cloth face covering does not make you invincible. It is just one more precaution that can help stop the spread of the virus, especially from people who are sick and do not know it yet.”
Baird said if businesses don’t have the capability to make these items, there are options to volunteer by going to the city’s website where there are also mask-making resources.
The announcement comes after 13 new cases bringing the community’s total to 32. This is the biggest area-jump since the pandemic started.
Of the new diagnoses, patients range from 20s-70s.
- 2 – 20s
- 3 -30s
- 1 – 40s
- 4 – 50s
- 2 – 60s
- 1 – 70s
Six cases are community acquired, four are travel-related with the health department investigating the rest.
One patient is hospitalized.
Baird reinforced there is no reason to panic and growth in positive, lab-confirmed cases are expected
LLCHD is now monitoring 95 individuals. Lancaster County reports 1,030 negative tests and 31 positives with 20 cases pending at the Nebraska Public Health Lab. There are now 387 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Nebraska and eight deaths.