Pubic Health of Madison and Dane County reported three new COVID-19 deaths this morning, increasing Dane County’s cumulative total to 182. One person who died was in their 50s, one was in their 70s and one was in their 90s. As of December 16, deaths have increased by 34.8 percent, mostly centered on those 70 and older. Of the three deaths, two were female and one person was Black.
Hospitalizations in Dane County continue to grow slightly this morning according to today’s update from Public Health of Madison and Dane County. There were 126 total COVID-19 patients in area hospitals as of this morning, an increase from yesterday’s 124. Of the 126 in the hospital today, 36 patients with COVID-19 remain in the ICU.
Public Health of Madison and Dane County also reported 123 new positive cases this morning which gives the county a new cumulative total of 32,660. Recovered cases grew to 30,525 as active cases fell to 1,953 or 6.0 percent of all cases.
For Dane County residents, the number of people ever hospitalized for COVID-19 has been adjusted down to 993 according to today’s update with 10 people originally added to the data removed.
In an email to Madison365, PHMDC officials said they were able to examine hospital records and make some corrections to their data.
“This week we were able to dedicate time to a quality improvement initiative related to hospitalization data,” the email read. “We don’t count hospitalizations with an incidental positive COVID finding (such as someone tested while in the hospital for an accident) as ‘hospitalization due to COVID’—this is an example of what we are investigating when we review hospital data.”
The number of hospitalizations for residents in the county continues to impact adults 60 and older the most for the past few weeks; however the increases are steadily declining. Madison365 has graphed that growth from information gathered daily from PHMDC’s data which reflects that the number of hospitalized cases in adults in their 90s by 14.7 percent and adults in their 80s growing by 8.8 percent and those in their 50s have grown by 10.6 percent since December 16. Hospitalizations overall for Dane County residents have grown 7.7 percent since December 16.
Hospitalizations also continue to significantly impact our communities of color with those who are Asian in our community growing by 13.5 percent since December 16. The percentage of hospitalizations for people who are Black in our community have grown 6.2 percent as those who are Hispanic/Latinx grew by 4.1 percent in hospitalizations during this time frame.
The 23 new cases were mostly attributed to December 29 with 96 new cases while 25 cases were attributed to December 28, increasing that day’s total to 73. The rest of the cases were attributed to dates last week. This brings the 7 day average of positive cases to 118.5 while the 14 day average of positive cases to 133.7.
The percentage of positive for December 29 was 4.0 while the percentage of positive for December 28 has increased to 6.0 and December 27 remains at 7.1. The seven-day average is at 4.6 while the 14 day average as of December 29 is now at 4.1. Madison365 expects these numbers to adjust as Public Health of Madison and Dane County continue to receive updated results throughout the week.
Age groups between 10-59 grew by double digits today with those in their 20s growing by 30 new cases, those in their 40s by 23 cases, and those in their 30s and 50s growing by 21 cases each. In single digit increases, children under 10 grew by seven new cases, adults in their 60s by six, those in their 70s by four and adults in their 90s by one.
When looking at our communities of color, those who identify as Hispanic/Latinx grew by 16 new cases or 13.0 percent of all new cases when broken down by ethnicity. Eight more cases were reported for those who are Black in our community while those who are Asian grew by seven new cases and those who are American Indian/Alaskan grew by two new cases.
Looking at growth over the past two weeks, infection in those in their 90s grew by 13.1 percent as adults in their 80s grew by 7.8 percent. Adults in their 70s grew by 8.4 percent and adults in their 60s by 8.1 since December 16.
In terms of case growth for the past two weeks for our communities of color, those who are Asian have seen the most growth since December 16th, with an increase of 8.1 percent. Black people have grown by 5.7 percent while those who are American Indian/Alaskan have grown by 6.5 percent and those who are Hispanic/Latinx grew by 5.8 percent for the same time frame as well.
UW reported no new positive cases as of December 29. There are 4,810 total positive cases for UW students, including four cases attributed to earlier dates in the week, and 532 positive cases, including eight cases attributed to earlier dates in the week, for UW employees for a total of 5,342 total cases from UW since tracking began for campus. The most recent updated 7 day average of cases is now at 3.1 for both students and staff in on and off campus testing as of December 20. The 7 day average for the percentage of positives for students is at 0.6 percent for students and 0.6 percent for employees from on campus testing.
Madison365 updated our weekly map for COVID-19 cases within our county tracts this past Friday. Our team will continue to update this data and publish it weekly.
We will have an update later this afternoon for statewide numbers after 2 pm.
