Nebraska governor tests positive for COVID-19

Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts (R) announced on Wednesday that he and first lady Susanne Shore have tested positive for COVID-19. 

“The First Lady and I have tested positive for COVID-19. Both of us are experiencing very minor symptoms.  We will be following CDC guidelines and will be isolating,” the governor said in a brief statement.

Ricketts previously stated that he has been vaccinated and received a booster shot.

Almost 65 percent of Nebraska’s population is fully vaccinated. The state has seen roughly 2,300 new cases and 21 deaths in the past week, numbers well-below the peaks seen in cases during the omicron variant-related surge in January and in deaths last fall, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center. 

This comes as COVID-19 cases have hit a plateau in the U.S. as a whole amid the spread of the BA.2 omicron subvariant, with roughly 100,000 new cases being reported each day. The number of cases nationwide does not appear to either be rising higher or declining after reaching a peak, as it has during previous waves of the coronavirus.