Nebraska identifies more variants of the coronavirus

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska health officials continue to find more coronavirus cases caused by different strains of the virus in the state.

Health officials said 291 cases of variants of the virus have been confirmed in Nebraska, up from 237 a week ago. Most of those cases were caused by a variant that was first identified in the United Kingdom that is more contagious than the original strain of the virus and more deadly.

The state said the number of people hospitalized with the virus in the state has generally been increasing since late March although the number has declined slightly in the past few days and it remains well below the peak of 987 reached in November. A total of 155 people were hospitalized with the virus Wednesday.

Nebraska reported 309 new cases of the virus on Wednesday to give the state a total of 215,383 cases. There have been 2,205 deaths since the pandemic began.

The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Nebraska decreased over the past two weeks from 343.86 new cases per day on March 30 to 327.00 new cases per day on Tuesday.

Nebraska has now vaccinated 32.2% of its population over the age of 16 for the virus. Anyone over the age of 16 is eligible to receive the vaccine in the state.