North Central District Health Department (NCDHD) has been made aware of 38 new cases in the district since the last reporting on 12/31: 7-Antelope; 0-Boyd; 0- Brown; 1-Cherry; 6-Holt; 0-Keya Paha; 15-Knox; 9-Pierce; 0-Rock.

NCDHD has received the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine and is proceeding to disperse vaccine to Phase 1A partners, as outline in the Nebraska COVID-19 Vaccination Plan. As of December 31, 2020, 784 north central Nebraska residents received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. NCDHD will notify the public as the district transitions to each phase. The speed of transition depends heavily on vaccine availability. Below is a tentative timeline for district COVID-19 vaccinations:

• Late December to Mid-January: Phase 1A Healthcare personnel providing direct patient care and/or are exposed to infectious materials and long-term care facility staff and residents.
• Mid-January to Mid-March: Phase 1B- Vaccine will be allocated to those 75 years and older, first responders, those in the education sector, and those working with critical infrastructure (i.e. food, agriculture, utilities, transportation, post office etc.).
• March-April: Phase 1C- Vaccines will be allocated to those 65 years of age and over, vulnerable populations (disabled, homeless, etc.), and those in congregate settings (incarcerated, colleges/universities, etc.).
• May – October: Phase 2 – Vaccine will be made available to the public.

NCDHD is following the Nebraska COVID-19 Vaccination Plan: http://dhhs.ne.gov/Documents/COVID-19-Vaccination-Plan.pdf.

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 8:30-10:30am at the north parking lot of the O’Neill Armory, located at the corner of 4th and Hynes Ave.
• Bassett: Tuesdays from 1:00pm-3:00pm at the Rock County Fair Grounds.
• 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.

Case count update as of 1/4/2021 at 4:00 PM: 3,799 Total Cases (TC), 1,771 Recoveries (R), 57 Deaths (D), and 225 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: 512, R:215, D: 5
Boyd: TC: 170, R: 77, D:3
Brown: TC 266, R: 99, D: 4
Cherry: TC: 381, R: 175, D:6
Holt: TC: 737, R: 392, D: 13
Keya Paha: TC: 41, R: 8, D: 0
Knox: TC: 922, R: 426, D: 6
Pierce: TC: 632, R: 297, D:19
Rock: TC: 138, R: 82, D:1