Public Health of Madison and Dane County reported 155 new COVID cases today, bringing the county’s cumulative total to 39,755. While it’s not clear how many are UW students, 94 of the news cases — 60.6 percent — were in people aged 18-22.
Preliminary data indicates that as of this morning, there are 89 cases attributed to February 18, 145 cases as of February 17 and 134 cases attributed to February 16. These numbers may adjust within the coming days.
In an email this morning to all UW students from University Health Services, UHS director Jake Baggot reported 112 positive cases were reported Wednesday and 99 more on Thursday from UW. These cases were reported for students that live both on and off campus. This update comes after the County confirmed yesterday that a case of the variant strain B.1.1.7 – known also as the strain reported in the U.K. – has been found in the County. Though the person confirmed with the strained was not identified, it was reported that this person has not traveled outside of Dane County recently.
The number of new cases identified in the past week is 32.5 percent lower than the week before.
For the past seven days, Dane County has averaged 13.7 cases per day per 100,000 residents.
The area’s current recovered case count is now at 38,177 while active cases grew slightly, however, to 1,130, about three percent of current cases, according to DHS’ update at 2 pm yesterday. Out of all cases in Dane County, about 51 percent were in Madison while 49 percent have been outside of Madison.
Hospitalizations grew to 40 people currently hospitalized for COVID-19. This includes people who reside in and out of Dane County. Of the 40 people currently hospitalized, 13 are in the ICU.
Dane County’s total death toll from COVID-19 remained at 267. As of this morning, there have been five deaths in the month of February while 46 total deaths have been attributed to January. December of 2020 has the most deaths of COVID-19 for Dane County with a total of 87.
Testing has increased as UW students have returned and the campus is requiring regular testing of all students. This could lead to an increase in total positive cases, as well as a decrease in positive test rate. According to preliminary data of all tests, the County is averaging 6,862.3 tests per day for the past seven days.
According to this week’s new Data Snapshot for February 1 through February 14, 39 percent of cases were UW Madison students or staff while 65 percent of tests for the county were run by UW’s University Health Services. Even when removing those tests and cases from the county’s total, Dane County’s percent of positivity for those two weeks was at 2.6. With UW, the percent of positivity was at 1.4 percent.
As of this morning Dane County, the 14-day positive test rate as of February 14 has remained at 1.4 while the seven-day rate also dropped down to 1.0. These rates do not include preliminary data from the past four days as that data continues to adjust as more tests are attributed.
As of yesterday’s dashboard update on UW’s website, UW is averaging 5,594.4 tests a day for the past seven days for on-campus testing while cases are now averaging 47.9 cases per day for the same time. For the past seven days, cases have increased for UW students and staff about 13.2 percent while testing on campus has increased by 5.2 percent. The positivity rate for on campus testing for staff and students has grown to 0.8 percent for the past seven days. Since February 11, a total of 335 UW students and staff have tested positive out of more than 37,000 tests – an increase from the week of February 4 when there a total of 296 positive tests for UW staff and students out of more than 37,000 tests.
For Dane County residents, the number of people ever hospitalized for COVID-19 has grown to 1,204.
More comprehensive data for vaccinations was unveiled on Friday morning as part of the PHMDC’s Data Dashboard. The data, to be updated every Wednesday and Friday per week, breaks down vaccinations in Dane County by age, and now by 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 86,901 of people have received at least one dose of vaccine — 15.9 percent of all Dane County residents — while 40,967, or 7.5 percent of all residents, have completed both doses. Of those 86,901 residents, 55 percent are 65 and older while those aged 35-44 were 14.7 percent of those who received at least one vaccination. Of those who completed the vaccinations, 55 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 2.8 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.
