Nebraska surpassed one thousand deaths due to COVID-19 this week, according to the state Department of Health.
At least 1,018 people have died since the start of the pandemic, including 81 in the past seven days.
Dr. Mark Rupp, chief of infectious diseases at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, says the recent decrease in the number of deaths is likely a temporary reprieve.
"I fully expect that here in the next two to four weeks we'll see cases swing back upwards," Rupp said. "And then typically several weeks after that you start to see the death rate go back up."
387 Nebraskans died of COVID-19 in November, more than twice the number of deaths in October.
Rupp says despite that increase, mortality rates are lower than in the spring because of effective treatments for the disease.