Dane County confirmed 53 new coronavirus cases Thursday, bringing the County’s total to 5,050. As of this morning, the total number of recovered was listed as 4,390.
Dane County’s death toll from COVID-19 remained at 39 this morning. Hospitalization data for the county was not updated at the time of publication.
Today’s highest concentration of cases continued to be in those in their 20s, increasing by 16 cases for the second consecutive day, while those in their 30s added 10 new cases. Teens aged 10-19 grew by nine cases while adults in their 50s grew by six and adults in their 40s grew by five. Adults in their 70s grew by three while children 0-9 and adults in their 60s both grew by two.
The most updated data on positive test percentage for a day is for August 21, with the positive test percentage reported as 1.6 percent while August 29 is now at 1 percent. The positive percentage for August 19 has been updated to 1.7 percent and August 18 at 1.4 percent. Madison365 expects that these numbers will be adjusted as more negative and positive tests are fully processed and attributed to the appropriate dates in the coming days. The break down for each day can be found on Public Health of Madison and Dane County’s Dashboard.
Yesterday, Public Health of Madison and Dane County issued Emergency Order #9 – ordering all schools (both public and private) to provide virtual schooling at the start of their school year for grades 3-12. This order, which goes into effect on Monday, also requires that all schools provide virtual options for grades K-2.
As noted in our previous story, in order for PHMDC to consider reopening grades 3-5 for in-person instruction, Dane County must sustain a 14-day average of 39 cases per day for four consecutive weeks. In order for PHMDC to consider reopening grades 6-12 for in-person instruction, Dane County must sustain at or below a 14-day average of 19 cases per day for four consecutive weeks. Should Dane County’s average number of cases per day over a two-week period increase above 54, PHMDC would consider closing all schools to in-person instruction, according to the announcement.
As of Friday, Dane County is averaging 42 cases over the past two weeks.
On Tuesday, Public Health of Madison and Dane County updated their Data Snapshot for the week of August 1 – 14 with a brief look at those past two week’s data and then updated that data with more information Thursday night, including Department of Health Services’ activity level metric. The activity level metrics measures the burden of cases within the last two week period (number of cases per 100,000) and the trajectory – or the percent change in cases from previous to the current week and if that trajectory is statistically significant
According to the update, the current activity level for the county remains High as of 8/19. Dane County reportedly still has high burden of cases with 110.5 cases per 100,000, but the trajectory has not significantly changed statically in the number of cases from the most recent seven days compared to the prior seven-day period. We have remained high since June 24th, a little less than two weeks from when DHS started to measure activity level by county. On June 13, when it was first being measured, we were at medium.
Currently, for those dates, Dane County has averaged 45 cases per day which is lower than last week’s 50 cases and this week’s originally reported 47. However, this number is still too high for the Forward Dane reopening plan to move forward, and is coded as red on the data snapshot metrics. For those dates, 83 percent of those who test positive have been contacted within 48 hours of being tested which is up from last week’s 75 percent. This means this metric, though improved, stays yellow according to the Forward Dane plan. Though last week’s snapshot reported that the percentage of those who tested positive who did not know where they would have gotten COVID from was at 40 percent, this week it rose to 41 percent keeping this metric red as well.
This disparity in hospitalizations and new cases for communities of color however remain over-represented. According to the snapshot, 6 percent of all people tested for the weeks of August 4 – August 17 identified as Hispanic/Latinx, who are also six percent of the population. However, they are 16 percent of all new cases for those dates and six percent of hospitalizations. Black people though six percent of the population in the County but only five percent of all tests for August 4 – August 17 (slightly underrepresented in all testing), are seven percent of all new cases for those dates and 28 percent of hospitalizations.
On Thursday, Madison365 updated our interactive Dane County Coronavirus Map. The map will be updated weekly.
We will have an update of today’s statewide numbers later this afternoon.
