Child COVID-19 Vaccination Rate Rising

Children between the ages of 12 and 15 were approved for the COVID-19 vaccine in early May, and already their vaccination rate is well above 20% in Milwaukee County.

A team of epidemiologists and faculty from the Medical College of Wisconsin and UW-Milwaukee have been tracking COVID-19 locally and producing a weekly report. After vaccinations began they started producing a weekly vaccine report, as well.

Their latest report shows that vaccinations are approaching 22% for 12 to 15 year-olds in Milwaukee County, and approximately 5% have completed their vaccination series.

Meanwhile, the number of daily new cases continues to decline as the cumulative number of vaccinations among the general population continues to grow.

“For the last five weeks we have seen marked decreases from the little peak that we saw back in April,” said Darren Rausch, director of the Greenfield Health Department, who works on the weekly reports.

The number of daily new cases continues to decrease. During the past week there were 119 new cases of COVID-19.

There was one death due to COVID-19 countywide during the past two weeks.

The transmission rate, which measures how many people, on average, will be infected by a single case of COVID-19 remains below 1.0. This means the community is suppressing the disease.

The positivity rate, which measures the percent of tests that come back positive for COVID-19, continues to decline and is at some of the lowest levels witnessed during the pandemic. Last week, the positivity rate countywide was 1.4%. The week prior it was 1.9%.

Since vaccinations began, there have been 791,191 doses of COVID-19 vaccine administered in the county. And 378,452 individuals have been completely vaccinated.

The vaccination rate is declining, and has generally been declining since mid-April.

Racial disparities in vaccination have been present since the start of the pandemic. Countywide, white residents have the highest rate of vaccination; followed closely by the county’s Asian population. The county’s Hispanic and Black residents have the lowest rate of vaccination in that order. 

The vaccination report indicates that the vaccination rate among Hispanic and Black residents began gradually increasing in mid-April.

Black residents continue to make up a disproportionate number of hospitalizations due to COVID-19 and have the highest rate of vaccination.

American Indian and Alaskan Native residents still have the highest rate of death, Hispanic residents have the highest rate of disease and white residents have the most cumulative cases.

Read the weekly report here. Read the kids report here. Read the vaccination report here.