Public Health of Madison and Dane County released their new Data Snapshot for November 17 – November 30 which included specific demographic data on deaths from COVID-19 in Dane County for this last month.
November became the county’s deadliest month, with a total of 41 deaths as of this update. This encompasses 40 percent of all deaths since the pandemic began for the county and doubles the second highest month, April, which had 20 deaths, according to the snapshot. Fifty six percent of all deaths from COVID-19 occurred between October and November with a total 57 deaths over those two months. Of all the deaths in November, about 63 percent resided in long-term care facilities. Of those 41 deaths, two percent were Black and two percent were Hispanic or Latinx.
Overall, the County, as the snapshot points out, remains significantly lower than the rest of the state in terms of rate of deaths from COVID-19 with 19.3 per 1,000 residents, versus Wisconsin’s 47.6.
Despite an overall lower number of positive of tests for the County from last week with 4,464, about 52 percent of newly positive residents from November 17 – November 30 resided outside of Madison. Though lower than last week’s snapshot, the overall case rate for the County was 82 cases per 10,000 as eight municipalities had significantly higher case rates than Dane County as a whole.
Madison365 also released our new weekly map which continues to track the increase of cases and any deaths of 5 or more by census tract for Dane County. This week’s map includes cases from November 19 – December 3.
Despite reverting to a crisis model of contact tracing and limited cluster data, PHMDC was able to provide the following data regarding outbreaks in the county for these past two weeks:
- 35 percent of cases had household contact with another COVID-19 case
- 30 percent of cases had non-household contact with another COVID-19 case
- 22 percent of cases attended a gathering or party in the past two weeks
Of cases from UW during this time period, 371 students tested positive along with 64 staff, or 9 percent of all cases during this two week period.
Cases were also found in the following areas where facility investigations took place:
For November 17 – November 30, Dane County has averaged 319 cases per day while the percentage of positive tests for the most recent 14 days is at 6.2 percent. The number of positive cases interviewed within 48 hours of receiving their results was at 27 percent while the percentage of people who were not aware of where they may have contacted COVID-19 is at 30 percent for this time frame.
The snapshot included a look at hospitalizations, which have continued to grow in Dane County as well as across the state. Though only 77 people were hospitalized in that two-week period, those who identify as Hispanic or Latinx continue to be over represented in the data for both cases and hospitalizations. The Hispanic or Latinx community make up six percent of the population in Dane County and were 7 percent in testing. However, Hispanic or Latinx residents were 17 percent of cases and 9 percent of hospitalizations for between November 17 – November 30. Black people in our county also were over-represented in cases and underrepresented in testing. With six percent of the population, Black people only accounted for five percent of testing, but nine percent of cases and five percent of hospitalizations. Those who identify as Asian were also underrepresented in testing and cases, making up seven percent of the population, but only four percent in testing and four percent in cases. American Indian/Alaska Natives though were at their population for testing with .3 percent, were also over represented in cases at .5 percent and in hospitalizations at 1 percent.
During this time, once again, about 2 percent of cases were hospitalized with 13 percent of those aged 70 and older.
Madison365 will have an update on the Dane County has soon as they are able to update their Dashboard and will have updated numbers from the state later this afternoon.
