According to this week’s new Data Snapshot for February 8 through February 21, 50 percent of new Dane County cases were UW Madison students or staff while 70 percent of tests for the county were run by UW’s University Health Services. When excluding UW cases and testing from the county’s total, the percent of positivity for the past two weeks was at 2.0, a drop from last week’s snap shot update of 2.6. With UW, the percent of positivity was at 1.2 percent from February 8 through February 21.
In total, for those two weeks, UW students accounted for 578 total positive cases or 47 percent while UW staff account for 42 cases or 3 percent. About 30 percent of all cases were associated with a dorm, fraternity/sorority or apartment building with 10 or more cases and 34 percent of positive cases had attended a gathering or party within the past two weeks.
As of this morning, Public Health of Madison and Dane County reported a net increase of 54 COVID cases today, bringing the county’s cumulative total to 40,232. While it’s not clear how many are UW students, 24 of the news cases — 44 percent — were in people aged 18-22. Cases overall for the county in the past two weeks have grown by 34 percent according to today’s dashboard update. For the past 7 days, the county has averaged 18.4 cases per day.
One additional death was also reported this morning – a person in their 80s – and was attributed to the month of February. In total, there are 11 deaths for this month and 46 for the month of January. The total number of deaths from COVID-19 for Dane County is now 273. About 65 percent of deaths in Dane County from COVID-19 have been from adults older than 80.
UW is averaging 6,731 tests a day for the past seven days for on-campus testing while cases are now averaging 42.1 cases per day for the same time – decreasing from yesterday’s reported 56.1 cases per day. For the past seven days, cases have decreased for UW students and staff about 12.2 percent while testing on campus has increased by 20.3 percent. The positivity rate for on campus testing for staff and students has decreased from yesterday’s 0.8 to 0.6 percent for the past seven days. Seven days ago, the positivity rate for campus was at 0.8 percent.
Dane County’s 14-day positive test rate as of February 22 has remained at 1.2 while the seven-day rate has also remained at1.2 as well. These rates do not include preliminary data from the past four days as that data continues to adjust as more tests are attributed.
For Dane County residents, the number of people ever hospitalized for COVID-19 has grown to 1,226. Currently, there are 37 people hospitalized in area hospitals (including those who live in and outside of Dane County), with 11 in the ICU.
More comprehensive data for vaccinations is updated every Wednesday and Friday per week, for Dane County by age, race and ethnicity. The data is retrieved from the Wisconsin Immunization Registry for all adults and children within the state. The release and the information on the dashboard does warn that some of this information may be incorrect or incomplete as the data is not updated as soon as someone is vaccinated or double checked as consistently as other data gathered.
As of this morning, about 93,843 of people have received at least one dose of vaccine — 17.2 percent of all Dane County residents — while 55,915, or 10.2 percent of all residents, have completed both doses. Of those 93,843 residents, 61.5 percent are 65 and older while those aged 35-44 were 15.2 percent of those who received at least one vaccination. Of those who completed the vaccinations, 61.5 percent were also 65 and older. Vaccination data is broken down between those who are 16 – 65+. No data for children is available as the vaccinations have not yet been approved for those under 15.
From all those who have been vaccinated, 2.3 percent are Hispanic or Latinx. Hispanic/Latinx people make up seven percent of the county and are underrepresented in those being vaccinated. Black people, who make up about six percent of the population, only make up 2.5 percent of those who’ve received at least one dose of vaccine. Asian people, who make up 6 percent of the county population, only make up 2.7 percent of those who have received at least one vaccination. Those who are American Indian/Alaskan Native and are .5 percent of the population are .5 percent of those who have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
Madison365 has updated our weekly map of COVID-19 cases in the county by census tract.
We will have an update later this afternoon for statewide numbers after 3 pm.
