COVID-19 Levels Still Going Down

The Omicron variant of COVID-19 sent disease levels spiking to heights not seen at any time during the pandemic in Milwaukee County.

But since January, the disease levels have fallen nearly as precipitously as they rose. In Milwaukee county, this trend continues and the community is seeing the disease burden drop to lows not experienced since the summer of 2021 before the Delta variant hit.

The latest weekly report on COVID-19 in Milwaukee County produced by epidemiologists and faculty from the Medical College of Wisconsin and UW-Milwaukee and public health officials covers the seven day period from March 16 to 22 and it shows the number of new cases were again down compared to the week before.

This past week there were 187 new cases in the county. The week prior there were 239.

There were 57 adults and seven children hospitalized with COVID-19 this past week. The week before those numbers were 86 and 14 respectively. There was one death due to COVID-19 this past week.

Last week Urban Milwaukee reported that wastewater sampling was detecting an increase in COVID-19 virus, according to data from the state Department of Health Services. The latest data from the state shows that the upward trend in that data has not continued and now it shows no change, up or down.

The county’s reproduction number continues to show the disease is being suppressed, though it is up slightly from the previous week. The latest data on transmission, from March 9 to March 15, shows the county had a rate of 0.96; whereas the week before the county was at 0.86. Though, this still means that, on average, each individual with a confirmed case of disease was likely to pass it to less than one other person.

The positivity rate, which measures how many tests come back affirmative for COVID-19, went down slightly to 2.0% from 2.3%.

The percentage of county residents eligible for the vaccine (5 years and older) that are fully vaccinated is at 64.7%, according to a countywide vaccination report, the week prior was 64.6%. The percentage of booster-eligible residents (age 12 years and older) that have received one has not changed over the past week, and is still at 58.2%.

Read the weekly report here. Read the children’s report here. Read the vaccine report here.