COVID-19 Cases at Historic Low

New cases of COVID-19 in Milwaukee are currently at all-time lows.

During the past week, there were 98 new cases of COVID-19 identified throughout Milwaukee County, the majority of them in the city of Milwaukee. These are the “lowest case numbers that we’ve seen throughout the entire pandemic,” said Darren Rausch, director of the Greenfield Health Department.

Rausch works with a team of epidemiologists and faculty from Medical College of Wisconsin and UW-Milwaukee on a weekly report tracking COVID-19 locally.

This week’s report also shows that cases continue to decline among children, and that most of the cases are occurring among teenagers aged 15 to 17.

Despite the record low case numbers, deaths due to COVId-19 continue. There were two deaths during the past week in the county.

The transmission rate, which measures, on average, how many people will catch COVID-19 from a single confirmed case, has gone up. Beginning in early April, the transmission rate held below 1.0 indicating community suppression of the disease. But during the first week of June, the rate climbed above 1.0 in both the city and the suburbs.

The positivity rate, which measures the percentage of tests that come back positive for COVID-19 went up slightly during the past week to 1.6%. The week prior it was 1.4%.

The report shows that Black county residents are seeing a total case count that’s rising faster than other racial and ethnic groups. Black residents also have a disproportionately high number of hospitalizations in the county.

The county’s Hispanic population still has the highest rate of disease, and American Indian and Alaskan Natives still have the highest rate of death due to COVID-19.

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