Late Thursday afternoon, Public Health of Madison and Dane County updated their Data Snapshot covering September 8 – 21 with a look at those two weeks’ data. Most notably in this week’s data was the decrease in positive cases among UW students and saff, and the increase in positive cases in the rest of the county.
Of the 2,503 cases confirmed in that two-week period, UW accounted for 65 percent or 1,631 total cases – 1,612 students and 19 UW staff. Of the 1,631 cases from UW:
- 96% were between the ages of 18-22
- 576 (35%) of the UW cases were linked to dorms
- 144 (9%) were linked to fraternities and sororities
- 510 (31%) apartment complexes on or near UW campus (this does include some overlap between the other groups listed above)
- 1,094 (71%) had close contact with a person already diagnosed with COVID-19
- 366 (24%) attended a party or large gathering
Non-UW related cases made up 35 percent of all new positive cases — 872 — for September 8 – 21. Of these 872 non-UW cases:
- 22% were between the ages of 18-22
- 10% were between 0-17 with 4% between 12-17 and 3% between the ages of 0-4
- 454 (58%) had close contact with a person already diagnosed with COVID-19
- 146 (19%) attended a party or large gathering
There were also 127 cases associated with known clusters, most notably:
- 29 came from workplace clusters with six that were more public-facing and 23 were from less public-facing workplaces.
- 32 total cases from childcare facilities and schools, of which 17 were children and 15 were adults.
Dane County averaged 179 new cases per day from September 8 – 21. This metric remains red according to the update and will continue to be red, preventing movement to the next phase of the Forward Dane plan until the county averages fewer than 20 new cases per day to move to yellow and below four cases per day to move to green.
The metric for positive test rate remains yellow as the county has averaged 5.0 percent for those dates. Our proportion of cases who did not where they might have been infected, however, is at 29 percent and remains yellow at this time.
For those same date ranges, the percentage of those who test positive that have been contacted within 48 hours of their reported results increased from last week’s 52 percent to 54 percent. This keeps this metric at red at this time. PHMDC guidelines require it to be 85 percent for it to turn green.
Communities of color are overrepresented in hospitalizations and in cases. According to the snapshot, those who identify as Hispanic/Latinx are underrepresented in all tests. Though six percent of the population, they continue to only be five percent of all tests during that two-week period. Those who are Hispanic increased in the percentage of cases from September 8 – 21 from 7 percent to 8 percent while hospitalizations decreased from 10 percent to 8 percent, the inequity is still concerning for that group. Though for those who identify as either Black or Asian represented only two percent of positive cases for those two weeks, both groups are underrepresented in testing in comparison to their population, with Black people making up 4 percent of tests and Asian people making up only 3 percent of test.
Madison365 will have an update on Dane County’s numbers tomorrow morning.
