Rise in Covid Cases at Southwest

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Graphic Courtesy of Lincoln/Lancaster County Health Department

The dial in Lincoln, Nebraska is currently in red. Southwest has 121 COVID cases.

Lillian Bittle, Writer

During this new semester, COVID cases have been rising due to the omicron variant (SARS-CoV-2). COVID has many different mutations, SARS-CoV-2 being the most recent. According to  UC Davis Health, “The omicron variant of COVID-19 is spreading more rapidly than other strains of the virus. Many of the mutations are in the spike protein, which relates to how the virus is spread.”  

 

“We’re moving more into this being an endemic type of disease, instead of a pandemic,” science teacher Charley Bittle said. “The flu is seasonal because the virus survives better in cool temperatures and dry environments, which is exactly Nebraska winter weather. COVID seems to not follow that trend based on the limited data collected. More than likely we would see flare ups or hot spots of COVID instead of seasonal.”

 

As of Jan 6. there have been 121 cases at Southwest High school. The latest case was Wednesday Jan. 26 where Southwest only had one positive case. There was a spike of cases during the middle of the term but the numbers have since receded. Southwest sends out daily emails telling the number of COVID cases that were reported that day. 

 

“I’d say the best thing that we could do is take what we’ve already done and look at what it did,” freshman Hunter Miller said. “Whatever helped, do more of that and what didn’t help, take that away.”

 

LPS put plans in place according to superintendent Steve Joel just in case COVID causes teaching to go virtual.