Fillmore County COVID-19 positives jump

By Signal Staff

Fillmore County has flared up as a current hot spot for the coronavirus. In the past two weeks, seven county residents have tested positive for COVID-19, which is more than double the number of positive tests that occurred in Fillmore County in the first three months of the current pandemic. The number of positives in the county is now at 13 with one death attributed to the coronavirus.
The need for home isolation and quarantine once diagnosed with the virus is now more important as ever. Plus, with the loosening of directed health measures, COVID-19 is now more difficult to contain. Fillmore County Hospital CEO Chris Nichols noted at the June 15 Geneva City Council meeting, an abundance of self quarantinine is needed now more than ever and to always err on the side of caution.
As of this weekend, the five-county Public Health Solutions (PHS) health district has 595 confirmed positives resulting in seven deaths. Of these, the vast majority (88.2 percent) have taken place in Saline County with 525 coronavirus positives—22 of these happening in the last two weeks. Gage County has 47 COVID-19 positives with one new positive in the last week. Gage County still has the most coronavirus deaths with four occurring in long-term health facilities. Fillmore now has 13 positives and Jefferson County has nine confirmed positives with two of these occurring in the past two weeks. Thayer County remains with only one positive test.
Statewide, there are currently 17,765 confirmed positives in Nebraska resulting in 252 deaths.