Graham Kilmer
MKE County

COVID-19 Level Increasing In Milwaukee

City of Milwaukee experiencing "extreme transmission" of disease.

By - Jul 22nd, 2022 06:28 pm
2019 Novel Coronavirus. Image by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

2019 Novel Coronavirus. Image by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Milwaukee County is experiencing a growing level of COVID-19 in the community.

Last week, the county met the standards for a high community level of COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Since then, indicators of disease have continued to point to a rise.

The latest weekly report, from July 13-19, produced by public health officials and epidemiologists and faculty from the Medical College of Wisconsin and UW-Milwaukee shows there were 1,369 cases this past week, up from 1,090 the week prior.

“Overall, recent data demonstrates a continued increase over the most recent weeks,” said Darren Rausch, director of the Greenfield Public Health Department, who helps produce the weekly report.

The City of Milwaukee announced Friday that it was experiencing extreme transmission of COVID-19

The number of people hospitalized due to COVId-19 also continued to rise this past week, with 149 adults hospitalized this past week compared to 141 the week prior. There was one death due to COVID-19 reported this past week.

The positivity rate, which measures the percentage of tests that come back positive for COVID-19 went up to 16.2% this past week compared to 15.8% the week prior. This figure only represents positive PCR tests sent to a laboratory, not rapid antigen tests or home tests.

As Urban Milwaukee reported last week, public health officials are pointing to the new Omicron subvariant of COVID-19 called BA.5, which is now responsible for a majority of new COVID-19 cases, as driving this new increase in disease. This new variant has proven adept at evading immunity from previous infections and vaccination.

“Vaccinations have been largely stagnant over the past several weeks, with population rates remaining flat or inching up very slowly,” Rausch said.

In Milwaukee County, 61.5% of all residents are completely vaccinated, and 58.7% of booster eligible residents have received a booster, according to a countywide vaccination report.

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

If you think stories like this are important, become a member of Urban Milwaukee and help support real, independent journalism. Plus you get some cool added benefits.

More about the Coronavirus Pandemic

Read more about Coronavirus Pandemic here

Categories: Health, MKE County

One thought on “MKE County: COVID-19 Level Increasing In Milwaukee”

  1. tornado75 says:

    you would think that there was no such thing as covid never mind and increase in the number of cases. gallery night is a lot of fun except when one is in a large room with a large unmasked group such as in Lily pad. i am sure other venues were the same.

    i have become a bus rider because i have become a walker and sometimes i’m too tired to walk home. the signs on the bus say mask required and when i asked this unmasked driver about that, he shrugged his shoulders.

    so let’s hear it for the nonchalance of the midwestern personality.

Leave a Reply

You must be an Urban Milwaukee member to leave a comment. Membership, which includes a host of perks, including an ad-free website, tickets to marquee events like Summerfest, the Wisconsin State Fair and the Florentine Opera, a better photo browser and access to members-only, behind-the-scenes tours, starts at $9/month. Learn more.

Join now and cancel anytime.

If you are an existing member, sign-in to leave a comment.

Have questions? Need to report an error? Contact Us