Nebraska Gov. Ricketts: Our state economy has been the least impacted from coronavirus
Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts discusses the coronavirus cases in the state on ‘CAVUTO Live.’
Nebraska's economy has been the least impacted by coronavirus in the country, Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts announced Saturday.
In an interview on "Cavuto LIVE," Ricketts told host Neil Cavuto that the Cornhusker State is "doing pretty well" in terms of COVID-19 case numbers and hospitalizations.
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"The thing we’ve really been focused on is hospitalizations, and our hospitalizations are as low as they've been since we've been able to get good data. So, it’s probably going back to as low as we’ve had since the middle of April," he said.
"We’ve got about 100 people in the hospital right now who have coronavirus and that's out of 4,000 hospital beds. We've got -- over 40 percent of our hospital beds are available. Over 40 percent of our ICU beds are available and about 80 percent of our ventilators," Ricketts continued. "So, we're in very good shape."
Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts speaks during a roundtable with President Donald Trump on the reopening of America's small businesses, in the State Dining Room of the White House, Thursday, June 18, 2020, in Washington. (AP)
According to data from the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), the state has confirmed a total number of 20,777 positive cases.
On Friday, health officials reported 154 new cases and two new virus-related deaths, bringing Nebraska's death toll up to 286 people.
"Cases have remained reasonably steady. We had a little bit of [an] increase last week, but…the average of the last seven days [was about] 160 cases," said Ricketts. "So, you can see it really wasn't that much. You know, we’re going to continue to monitor it and continue to make sure that if anybody is infected we get them isolated."
"But, you know, we’ve struck that balance here so that we've had, you know, been able to manage the hospital systems [and] cases being steady. And, we've got the lowest unemployment rate in the country," he added. "Last week, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) said our state economy has been the least impacted of all 50 states."
In its first estimate for the U.S. economy’s second-quarter growth rate, the BEA reported that national GDP is down about five percent.
New York and Nevada saw the biggest GDP decline among states at 8.2 percent and Nebraska saw the smallest decline of 1.3 percent.
"Well, I think all governors are going to be judged with regard to how they handle the virus," Ricketts said.
"Here in the United States, we're decentralized. We do rely on our states to be able to take this. And I'm a state’s rights guy so I think that's exactly the right place it should be," he noted. " And, you know, as governors we know our states better than anybody else. So, it should be left to us to manage this."
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"I do think you're going to see 50 different responses in different ways and each governor will have to answer to their voters, you know, with regard to, you know, 'how did you handle it?'" Ricketts concluded.
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