NEBRASKA- Nebraska recorded the nation’s fifth-highest percentage increase in COVID-19 cases last week, part of a surge of infections occurring in the upper Great Plains.

For this week, the state recorded 5,104 new cases, up from 4,177 the previous week, according to a World-Herald analysis of federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.

That tally marked the second straight week of increased cases for the state, following weeks of flat and slightly falling cases.

Also last week, families began lining up for the Pfizer vaccine for children ages 5 to 11, days after it cleared the last federal regulatory hurdle for emergency use.

Adding the nation’s 28 million children — including 186,000 in Nebraska — to the list of those eligible to get the shots has been hailed by medical experts as another way of slowing the pandemic.

Nebraska’s case growth over the past week and the past two weeks both rank fifth-highest in the country. Minnesota ranks second for both of those time periods; Iowa is 10th. All of the states in the upper Great Plains, including the Dakotas, now rank in the top 20 nationally in weekly per-capita cases. Per-capita cases in Nebraska are running about 65% higher than the U.S. average.

Nationally, cases were up 5% last week — the first weekly increase in the United States after two months of falling cases. Increases in the upper Great Plains and some Western states, including Colorado, California, and New Mexico, appear to be offsetting ongoing declines in some Southern states hit hard by the delta variant over the summer.

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