COVID-19 Declining in Milwaukee

Cases and transmission of COVID-19 are continuing to trend down in Milwaukee County.

The latest report from a team of epidemiologists and faculty from the Medical College of Wisconsin and UW-Milwaukee shows that Milwaukee County is seeing community suppression of COVID-19.

Darren Rausch, director of the Greenfield Health Department, works on the weekly report. He said, “The data continues to be favorable again this week.”

The county is seeing decreases in daily new cases in both Milwaukee and the suburbs. The decreasing cases are visible in both the adult and children populations, reversing the trend observed in recent weeks when cases were rising among children, specifically teenagers.

The transmission rate for the county remains below 1.0, which means that for each new case of COVID-19, the disease will be passed, on average to less than one other person. This is the figure that indicates community suppression.

The county’s positivity rate, which measures what percentage of tests come back positive, continues to drop. It was 3.1% over the past week. The week prior it was 3.5%. The positivity rate in the suburbs is significantly lower than in the city of Milwaukee. The suburbs saw a rate of 2.5% over the past week, and the city saw a rate of 3.4%.

Deaths remain at all-time lows since the start of the pandemic. Over the past week there were two deaths from COVID-19 in the county. The week prior there was one death.

This, public health officials have said, is likely due to the high level of vaccination among residents most vulnerable to COVID-19, those 65 years or older.

The demographic breakdown of COVID-19 has not changed in recent weeks. Transmission is increasing among Black residents and the cumulative cases are on track to surpass that of Hispanic residents, which hasn’t occurred since the early days of the pandemic.

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

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