COVID-19 No Longer Declining in Milwaukee
Transmission rate rises slightly even as deaths down and many getting vaccinated.
Cases of COVID-19 in Milwaukee County have plateaued and transmission is going up in the city.
Since the second week of January, the number of daily new cases of COVID-19 has been trending down. The latest report from a team of epidemiologists and faculty from the Medical College of Wisconsin and UW-Milwaukee tracking the disease locally shows that downward trend has given way to a low, but holding, number of new cases each day.
Rausch works to produce the weekly report, which shows the new transmission rate for the county is 1.09. This means that, on average, every new case of COVID-19 is transmitting the disease to “a little bit more than one additional person,” he said. A rate above 1.00 is a bad sign. The rise in transmission is also currently more pronounced in the city than in the suburbs.
The latest numbers on deaths suggest the county may be starting to see the effect of vaccination. In the past week, there have been no reported deaths. Rausch said the hope is that as vaccination continues to rise there will be a reduction in serious COVID-19 outcomes like hospitalization and death.
Earlier this week, when the state began the second phase of vaccination, it announced that more than half of all residents 65 years or older had received at least one dose of vaccine.
Testing has been dropping, and public health officials urge residents to continue to access COVID-19 testing. But the positivity for the county, or the percentage of tests that come back positive for the virus has also been dropping week over week. Two weeks ago it was 3.4%. This past week it was 2.8%.
Recently, American Indian and Alaskan Native residents saw a spike in their deaths and hospitalizations and now have the highest rate for both in the county.
Read the weekly report here. Read the children’s report here.
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More about the Coronavirus Pandemic
- WI Health Department Urges Booster Shots for Ages 5 to 11 - Erik Gunn - May 24th, 2022
- DHS Recommends COVID-19 Vaccine Booster Doses to Everyone 5 and Older - Wisconsin Department of Health Services - May 23rd, 2022
- MKE County: COVID-19 Cases Rising Again - Graham Kilmer - May 20th, 2022
- City of Milwaukee Weekly COVID-19 Update - Wisconsin Department of Health Services - May 20th, 2022
- City of Milwaukee Mask Advisory - City of Milwaukee Health Department - May 20th, 2022
- State’s COVID-19 Cases Up 66% in May - Erik Gunn - May 17th, 2022
- City of Milwaukee Weekly COVID-19 Update - City of Milwaukee Health Department - May 13th, 2022
- DHS Announces the Moving Forward Together Grant Program to Support Health Equity Efforts in COVID-19 Vaccinations - Wisconsin Department of Health Services - May 12th, 2022
- City of Milwaukee Weekly COVID-19 Update - City of Milwaukee Health Department - May 6th, 2022
- COVID-19 Antibody Study Seeks Volunteers of Color - Matt Martinez - May 5th, 2022
Read more about Coronavirus Pandemic here
Not great. I expect we’ll maybe see a small st patrick’s day spike before vaccines finish the job in April and May