Douglas County recorded two more deaths due to COVID-19 on Tuesday and 145 additional cases of the virus that causes the illness.
The two additional deaths, a man and a woman both over age 65, bring the county to 39 deaths due to the virus since the outbreak began. Douglas County health officials offered condolences to the families of the two.
The 145 additional cases boosted the total number of cases confirmed in the county so far to 4,557.
County health officials also confirmed a change in testing hours and locations in Omaha. The Nebraska National Guard and TestNebraska will be swabbing residents from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day through Saturday at 4920 S. 30th St., a parking lot across from OneWorld Community Health Center.
Those who want to be tested must go online to register at testnebraska.com/en, or testnebraska.com/es in Spanish. After taking an assessment, those eligible for testing will receive a QR code. Those seeking a test must present their QR code and a form of identification at the testing site. The identification may include, but is not limited to, a bill from an area utility.
Douglas County health officials also encouraged residents to continue to practice social distancing and frequent hand-washing and to wear a mask in public. New studies are confirming that wearing masks can reduce the infection rate of COVID-19, they said.
In Lincoln, 17 additional lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 were reported Tuesday, bringing the community total to 1,245.
Pottawattamie County reported two new cases of the coronavirus Tuesday, both in Council Bluffs residents. A total of 309 Pottawattamie County residents have tested positive for the virus.
Pottawattamie County health officials said they will be working with Iowa health officials and Tyson Foods to make sure that workers who have tested positive and live within the county have been accounted for in the county’s tallies.
Tyson said Tuesday that 224 workers at its Council Bluffs beef and pork plant had tested positive for the virus. Of them, nearly half have since returned to work after isolating and recovering at home. The company tested all of the nearly 1,500 workers at the plant.
Across Nebraska, 14,611 cases and 181 deaths had been reported by Tuesday night. That was an increase from Monday of 266 cases and three deaths.
The Douglas County Health Department also reported that 140 patients were hospitalized with COVID-19 in the metro area on Tuesday. The count was 156 on Monday. A total of 168 of the 375 ventilators available to metro area hospitals were in use Tuesday, including 49 for confirmed COVID-19 patients.
Also on Tuesday, the Nebraska Department of Corrections reported that two workers at the Tecumseh State Prison have tested positive. There are now 16 workers in the corrections system that have tested positive.
