As we reported earlier Greater Omaha Packing has confirmed several cases of COVID-19.

And now the company provides a limited look inside the plant: Pictures of the entrance and two other areas away from the line operations.

The company’s CEO, Henry Davis, telling News Channel Nebraska there is “No evidence that the cases (nine as of a few days ago) are related or the result of being passed from one person to another at GOP.”

At the same time though the local health department has seen a spike in positive cases throughout Douglas County: Since the outbreak began there have been 609 cases, in the last five days alone 210 cases, that’s 34 percent of the total.

And while some are predicting problems only days before a limited re-opening of businesses in the Metro, Governor Pete Ricketts defends his decision to loosen the reins.

Ricketts (April 24): What we can look at though is real hard data, not predictions, of what is happening in the health care system. So for instance, if you look at Omaha from the data that was released yesterday, I think we had 389 ventilators, 96 of them were in use, 21 for COVID patients. What is our capacity of hospital beds and ICU beds? We’ve got that capacity here in the state so that’s what we’re really tracking.

But some state lawmakers aren’t convinced.

Senator Megan Hunt: “Now is the time for calculated, careful economic decisions, not widespread reopening.”

Ricketts: I want to remind everybody the 10-person rule is still in effect until the end of May. The things we are doing are very incremental to be able to loosen up some of these restrictions.

Senator Adam Morfeld: “Just because we have open hospital beds, doesn’t mean it’s safe to relax restrictions.”

And it’s those rising case numbers in Douglas County that have some worried. Yes, the number of tests is increasing but so are the percentage of positive tests.

For the last several weeks those percentages were in the single digits. Then last week 10 percent tested positive and so far this week, nearly 25 percent have come up positive.