BURWELL, Neb. – Two new cases of COVID-19 have been reported to Loup Basin Public Health Department (LBPHD).
The first case is a female in her 70s from Howard County. The second case is a male in his 20s from Howard County. Patient information is considered protected health information under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and will not be provided to protect the patient's privacy.
Last week, Governor Ricketts announced TestNebraska.com which has three steps: assess, test and track. Contact tracing (track) is done to minimize the spread and is important work done by local health departments. It is known that a person who has tested positive for COVID-19 may be exposing others in the 48 hours before their symptom onset. Contact tracing looks at that timeframe to identify those who have been exposed and asks those individuals who were in contact with the positive case to quarantine and monitor for symptoms.
To help improve this process, Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) CEO Dannette Smith announced 325 teammates from DHHS are being trained to assist in this vital job. These teams will be embedded within local health departments and support LBPHD’s role of keeping our citizens safe.
You can keep up to date with Governor Ricketts announcements by tuning in to his daily briefings at 2 p.m. on netnebraska.org. For additional information on what is occurring within LBPHD’s district, you can visit our website (lbphd.org) or Facebook page.