Gatherings in Nebraska officially limited to 10 or fewer people

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    Omaha, NE (KPTM) — Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts officially limited public events and gatherings to fewer than 10 people Monday.

This includes any events like weddings or funerals and more.

Private businesses like bars, restaurants, and gyms are also part of the limit. Omaha police will enforce that rule within the city.

“We hope our bar and restaurant owners will be responsible and limit that on their own,” said Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert.

Ricketts said bars and restaurants will be required to move to takeout only if a second case of community spread is identified in Omaha; there are one to two community cases identified in Lincoln; or one community spread case in other towns.

Earlier Monday, Gov. Ricketts announced a reduction to 50 people maximum at any event but then updated that to 10 people upon further guidance from the CDC.

With coronavirus cases changing day by day, Officials are preparing to make the call for even more closures.

The city already has one case of community spread.

With one more case of community spread, we’ll see a crowd cap of 50 people.

Although, it could come before the second case.

Governor Pete Ricketts has issued public guidance for no gatherings with an attendance larger than 250 people.

But that could change as soon as tomorrow.

The new cap would be 25 to 50 people.

“It’s not referring to business owners per se but particularly entertainment gatherings, things to that sort. The public needs to be on notice that we are definitely having conversations and could likely pull the trigger to limit crowd sizes because of this factor and the big exposures,” says Chris Rodgers, president of the Douglas County Board of Health.

Schools would close for six to eight weeks.

Although officials will gather every two weeks to reevaluate the risks.

The Omaha Police Department is working on a plan on how enforcement of the new rule would work.

Omaha Police Chief, Todd Schmaderer says, “The reason we’re tentatively talking about that now is not to spring it upon our entertainment or bar owners if we do have to do that down the road, tomorrow or even somewhere in between.”

When it comes to testing for coronavirus, the state still has guidelines on when someone can be tested.

but officials are working to relax those guidelines.

“Now the commercial labs are up and running and I think we’re assured this following week will even be better equipped to start doing the testing so I can just assure that if a Nebraskan needs a test, we will make sure that gets done,” says Dr. Gary Anthone, chief medical officer for Nebraska.

The 50 people crowd gathering rule is not in effect just yet.

Although officials say everything is changing day by day and that the situation is very fluid.

Governor Ricketts says he supports business owners making their own decisions to close down earlier if they feel it’s necessary.

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