Public Health of Madison and Dane County reported 118 new COVID cases today, bringing the county’s cumulative total to 39,873. While it’s not clear how many are UW students, 42 of the news cases — 35.6 percent — were in people aged 18-22.
Of today’s newly reported numbers, adults in their 30s grew by 15, those in their 50s by 11, and those in their 40s and adults aged 23-29 both grew by 10.
Preliminary data indicates that as of this morning, PHMDC has reported 75 cases attributed to February 19, 127 cases attributed to February 18, 148 cases as of February 17 and 134 cases attributed to February 16. These numbers may adjust within the coming days.
According to UW’s dashboard, preliminary data indicates there have been 69 attributed to February 18, 105 cases attributed to February 17, and 112 cases attributed for February 16 for UW students in on and off campus testing. This data may be adjusted in the coming days. Any cases attributed to February 19 will not be updated until after 2pm when UW updates their dashboard.
UW is averaging 5,943 tests a day for the past seven days for on-campus testing while cases are now averaging 55.3 cases per day for the same time – increasing from yesterday’s reported 47.9 cases per day. For the past seven days, cases have increased for UW students and staff about 39.2 percent while testing on campus has increased by 9.1 percent. The positivity rate for on campus testing for staff and students has grown to 0.9 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.
In an email yesterday to 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. Details updated on the UW dashboard yesterday afternoon report that most of the positive students reported that they had attended a gathering with or without mask.
For the past seven days, Dane County has averaged 14.9 cases per day per 100,000 residents, a slight increase from yesterday’s reported 13.7 cases per 100,000 residents.
The area’s current recovered case count is now at 38,303 while active cases grew slightly for a second day, however, to 1,163, about three percent of current cases, according to DHS’ update at 2 pm yesterday. Out of all cases in Dane County, about 52 percent were in Madison while 48 percent have been outside of Madison.
Hospitalizations grew to 42 people currently hospitalized for COVID-19. This includes people who reside in and out of Dane County. Of the 42 people currently hospitalized, 12 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 6,909.3 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 16 has remained at 1.4 while the seven-day rate has increased to 1.2. These rates do not include preliminary data from the past four days as that data continues to adjust as more tests are attributed. Preliminary information shows that for February 18 and February 19, the 14- day positive test rate increases to 1.3, however, this information will adjust has more information becomes available.
For Dane County residents, the number of people ever hospitalized for COVID-19 has grown to 1,209.
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.
