Beatrice Fire and Rescue shatters call volume record...but Covid contacts are down

BEATRICE – Despite a general surge in Covid-19 cases across the U.S. because of a strong Delta variant and the new Omicron variant, cases encountered by local EMS crews in Beatrice were down last year, compared with 2020.

Beatrice Fire and Rescue crews going out on a call, treat every case as if Covid could be involved, taking the necessary precautions such as masking. In many cases, Fire and Rescue Chief Brian Daake says because some don’t display symptoms, it can be hard to pinpoint which illness crews are encountering.

"The year of 2020 we saw 137 Covid patients total, and then in 2021, we saw 58."

The peak monthly Covid number handled by local ambulance crews was 47 in November, of 2020. Since then, there’s been a general downward trend in the monthly numbers.

In 2021, Beatrice Fire and Rescue blew past 3,000 total fire and ambulance calls, for the first time in department history. There have now been back-to-back record years.  "We had a record call volume of 2,949....and that's all calls. This last year, 2021, it was 3,733 calls. And, we saw basically an increase of 250 medical calls."

Daake says the health of department members, answering potential Covid calls, has been good.  "When the peak of 2020 hit...in the winter months, we did have a handful of our firefighters contract Covid...but everybody came out of it, and is doing fine. As far as I know, we haven't had anyone sick because of Covid since that two or three-month time frame."