COVID-19 Cases Show Slight Decrease

Around the beginning of April, Milwaukee County began seeing a rise in the number of new cases of COVID-19. Now, the latest data on disease in the county shows the number of weekly new cases declined slightly.

The most recent weekly report produced by epidemiologists and faculty from the Medical College of Wisconsin and UW-Milwaukee and public health officials shows there were 1,390 cases of COVID-19 this past week, compared to 1,717 the week prior.

The latest data comes from May 25-31, and Darren Rausch, director of the Greenfield Health Department, said, in an email to colleagues releasing the latest report, that, “The data supports evidence of a recent plateau, and potentially evidence for a sustained decrease pending next week’s data report.”

Hospitalizations, which are a lagging indicator of disease both due to reporting challenges and the time it takes for someone that contracts COVID-19 to become seriously ill, have risen slightly this past week over the previous week. There were 124 adults reported hospitalized due to COVID-19, up from 120 the week prior. There were 14 children reported hospitalized this past week, up from 13 the week prior.

There were two deaths, after several weeks that saw no deaths due to COVID-19.

The positivity rate, which measures the percentage of tests that come back positive for COVID-19 also went up to 14.5% this past week after a decline was measured the week before.

The most recent COVID-19 reproduction number for the county, 0.963, as of May 18-24, shows community suppression of the disease continuing for a second week in a row. This number reflects how many people, on average, will catch COVID-19 from a single identified case of the disease.

New vaccination has been stagnant in Milwaukee County for weeks. This past week, the percentage of vaccine eligible residents (five years old and up) that were completely vaccinated was 65.7%, up from 65.6% the week prior. The percentage of booster eligible residents that had received one was 58.7%, up from 58.6% the week prior.

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