Lincoln Mayor’s coronavirus press conference
LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) — Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird and officials with Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department (LLCHD) update the community on the latest, local coronavirus statistics. Following a short holiday break, the Mayor’s weekly press conference will now be held on Tuesdays.
We’ll be live-streaming it at 3:30 p.m., right here on klkntv.com.
The Lincoln Transportation and Utilities (LTU) Director took to the podium to update the community on our snow efforts.
A snow emergency went into effect at 1 p.m. this afternoon. No ban has been put on residential street parking, but it is strongly discouraged.
Today was the first-day LTU was able to utilize private plow contractors to clear out residential areas.
“This allowed snow plowing efforts to begin up to 15 hours earlier than compared to operations in the past, we expect plowing the residential areas to be complete about 12 hours after the commencement of operations,” said the LTU Director. “We will continue to monitor the streets weather forecasts and street data to determine if we need to contractors need the contractors to go back through the neighborhoods for a second curb to curb pass.”
Health Director Pat Lopez encouraged locals commenting, “Your efforts are making a difference and we have data to support that.”
However, “the pandemic continues to plague” Lancaster County residents as seen in the mortality rate.
According to Director Lopez, nearly 50% of the reported COVID deaths are Lancaster County residents. Most of which were individuals in long-term care facilities.
Lincoln’s Mayor acknowledged today’s milestones, this being the 99th pandemic related news conference and the last press conference of 2020.
She highlighted the decrease seen in daily cases but says we can’t celebrate just yet.
“While we are grateful for the progress we have made together. We do want you to be aware of some key concerns,” Mayor Gaylor Baird said. “We continue to see a decrease in the number of people getting tested, and our community’s positivity rate remains very high. We’re also keeping a close eye on a recent uptick in Lancaster County hospitalizations. These are among the factors that are keeping the COVID-19 Risk Dial in red for the eighth week.”
Officials with the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department (LLCHD) report two new COVID deaths in the community, with the total now at 150.
The deceased have been identified as two men in their 60s and 70s who were hospitalized.
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Additionally, 153 new lab-confirmed cases were reported, bringing the community total to 22,236.
The county is reporting 6,601 people have recovered from COVID-19. While the weekly positivity rate is 25.8%.
Currently, 101 patients are hospitalized due to COVID (58 from Lancaster County). A total of seven people are on ventilators.
