The Lincoln-Lancaster County Health department is reporting one more death from COVID-19. The person is a woman in her 70’s who was hospitalized. There were eight confirmed cases reported on Monday and the total number of cases is 29,848. There have now been a total of 228 deaths and there are 29 people in the hospital.
The health department has confirmed four local cases of COVID-19 variant B.1.1.7 also known as the U.K. variant. The variants were identified through special testing at the Nebraska Public Health Lab, and LLCHD is currently investigating. A total of seven cases of COVID-19 variants have been identified in Lancaster County, six are the U.K. variant and the other is the California variant.
The health department says variants can spread more easily and quickly and they can lead to more cases of COVID-19. Residents are urged to continue preventive actions to control the spread of COVID-19 and its variants in the community, which include getting the COVID-19 vaccine as soon as it’s available to you.