North Central District Health Department (NCDHD) has been made aware of 51 new cases in the district since the last reporting on 12/23: 12-Antelope; 1-Boyd; 4-Brown; 2-Cherry; 6-Holt; 0-Keya Paha; 15-Knox; 10-Pierce; 1-Rock.

NCDHD regrets to report five additional COVID-19 deaths in Pierce County: three women and two men in their 80s. NCDHD sends its sincerest condolences to the families.

NCDHD wishes the district a happy and healthy holiday season. Please remember the 3 C’s to reduce the spread of COVID-19: avoiding close contacts, confined spaces, and crowded places.  NCDHD’s physical office will be closed January 1st, for general COVID-19 questions call the Nebraska COVID-19 Hotline at 402-552-6645. NCDHD will not host testing clinics on Tuesday, December 29 due to weather concerns and on December 31st.

NCDHD COVID-19 testing sites offer a 15-minute rapid test and/or the gold standard PCR test. The rapid test is only offered to individuals who are currently exhibiting symptoms associated with COVID.

All testing is offered free of charge at the below locations:

  • O’Neill: Monday- Thursday from 8:30am-10:30am in the north parking lot of the O’Neill Armory which is located at the corner of 4th and Hynes Ave. Cancelled on December 29 and December 31.
  • Bassett: Normally on Tuesdays from 1:00pm-3:00pm at the Rock County Fair Grounds; however, December 29 testing event is cancelled and rescheduled for December 30 from 1-3PM.
  • Pre-registration for testing at www.testnebraska.com is highly encouraged, but not required.
  • The last patient will be scheduled 15 minutes before the scheduled end of the clinic.
  • Valentine: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 1:30-3:30PM. Hosted by Cherry County Hospital but testing is at the Valentine United Methodist Church, located at 804 E. 5th St. Valentine, NE. Rapid tests are not available at this location. Testing will not be held January 1. Testing has also been cancelled for 12/30/20.

Case count update as of 12/28/2020 at 4:00 PM: 3,684 Total Cases (TC), 1,633 Recoveries (R), 55 Deaths (D), and 391 total cases reported in the last 14 days. A reminder that Total Case (TC) numbers are represented first, and of those total cases the number of Recovered (R) persons is represented second, and total case related Deaths (D) is represented third.

Antelope: TC: 498, R:197, D: 5      

Boyd: TC: 170, R: 73, D:3              

Brown: TC 259, R: 93, D: 4           

Cherry: TC: 376, R: 160, D:5         

Holt: TC: 701, R: 367, D: 13

Keya Paha: TC: 40, R: 7, D: 0

Knox: TC: 888, R: 396, D: 5

Pierce: TC: 615, R: 261, D:19

Rock: TC: 137, R: 79, D:1