OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - City leaders in Nebraska find they're left with the onus of whether to require masks as the state's governor continues to resist issuing a statewide mask mandate in the face of a raging coronavirus pandemic.
The Omaha suburb of Papillion was slated to vote Thursday on a proposal to require masks in public buildings, after two consecutive nights of public debate over the proposal.
About 40 people turned up Tuesday and Wednesday to debate Papillion's mask proposal, the Omaha World-Herald reported. The proposals would require anyone 5 or older to wear masks in many indoor places.
The Papillion Board of Health has recommended the mask mandate, and several medical workers and educators - two professions hit particularly hard by the outbreak - spoke in favor of a mandate. More than a dozen people spoke against the proposal, including laundromat owner Peter Mayberry, believed to be the first person in Omaha ticketed for violating that city's mask mandate.
In Grand Island, police made clear this week that they will enforce that city's mandate passed last week, including charging violators with public nuisance counts.
"If someone has a complaint about someone not wearing a mask, they are to go to the business manager. That's the first step," Grand Island Police Capt. Jim Duering told the Grand Island Independent. "So we will respond if a business has already intervened and is not getting compliance."
A surge in cases in recent weeks led Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts to reissue some statewide restrictions, including requiring masks in certain businesses like salons and tattoo parlors. But Ricketts has refused to impose a statewide mask mandate, arguing that mandates breed resentment and may face resistance.
More than a dozen Nebraska cities have adopted their own mask mandates, including some of the state's largest. That includes Omaha and many of its suburbs, Lincoln, Norfolk, Columbus, Hastings, Beatrice and Kearney.
On Wednesday, the state reported 48 more coronavirus deaths and an additional 2,336 new coronavirus cases. That brought the state's total deaths to 1,128 and 132,530 cases since the pandemic began, according to the state's online virus tracker.
The number of people hospitalized with the virus declined again Wednesday to 853 from the previous day's 869. But the numbers remain well over the level seen two months earlier when 232 people were hospitalized. The state also reported dwindling hospital space to treat patients, with only 24% of the state's intensive care unit beds available on Wednesday.
Nebraska continued to have the sixth-highest rate of infection in the nation on Wednesday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Nebraska decreased over the past two weeks, going from 2,296 new cases per day on Nov. 18 to more than 1,787 new cases per day on Wednesday.