Nebraska is reinstating some restrictions to help slow the spread of COVID-19 in the state.
Gov. Pete Ricketts announced those restrictions along with a new campaign to help slow the spread during a news conference Friday afternoon.
The state has relied on DHM's, or Directed Health Measures, to reopen the state by county after spring restrictions with all counties being in "Phase 4."
Gov. Ricketts said these changes in the DHMs come as hospitalization rates rise in the state. Currently, Nebraska is seeing 40% more hospitalization than the state's peak in cases back in May.
As of Friday, there are 323 people hospitalized statewide with COVID-19 with 30% of beds, 29% of ICU beds and 70% of ventilators still available across the state.
Effective Wednesday, October 21st, the following changes will be made to the Phase 4 DHMs.
Indoor gatherings will be reduced. Current limits state indoor gatherings need to be at 75% capacity. Beginning Wednesday, indoor gatherings will be reduced to 50% capacity, the same as Phase 3 of the DHMs.
Bars and restaurants are also moving to 50% capacity and limit table size to 8 people.
For hospitals to perform elective surgeries, they must maintain 10% of staffed hospital and ICU beds in order to handle COVID-19 patients. Hospitals are also not allowed to transfer patients out to stay within that 10% cushion for elective surgeries.
New limits will also be placed on weddings and funeral sizes.
NEW STATEWIDE CAMPAIGN
The state is also launching a new statewide campaign to help slow the spread of COVID-19 in the winter months. The new campaign will focus on the Three C's: Crowded Places, Confined Spaces, Close Contact
"As we look at the contact tracing data," Ricketts said, "we see that a lot of the spread is coming from informal gatherings.
The state of Nebraska has seen two record-breaking days this week for new positive cases, with over 3,000 new positive cases added between Oct. 11th and Oct. 15th.