COVID-19 Still In Decline

Milwaukee County continues to experience declining levels of COVID-19.

Last week, a weekly report produced by epidemiologists and faculty from the Medical College of Wisconsin and UW-Milwaukee and public health officials showed some key metrics of disease reaching levels not seen since summer 2021. The latest report shows this trend continuing.

The latest data comes from March 2-8, there were 256 cases reported among residents of the county, down from 314 the week before.

Hospitalizations and deaths, both lagging indicators of the disease because of how long it typically takes for COVID-19 to make someone seriously ill after infection, have been declining for weeks now.

This past week, there were 115 adults hospitalized with COVID-19 reported in the county. There were 17 hospitalizations among children.

One death due to COVID-19 was reported this past week. This is down from three the week prior.

The positivity rate, which measures the percentage of tests that come back positive for COVID-19 was 2.5% this past week, down from 2.7% the week before. This positivity rate only includes data from PCR tests. It does not include at-home or rapid antigen tests.

Positivity has not been this low since Summer 2021, before the highly-contagious Delta variant arrived in Milwaukee.

The county’s reproduction number continues to show the disease is being suppressed. The latest data on transmission, from Feb. 23 to March 1, shows the county had a rate of 0.83. This means that, on average, each individual with a confirmed case of disease was likely to pass it to less than one other person.

The percentage of county residents eligible for the vaccine (5 years and older) that are fully vaccinated is at 64.4%, according to a countywide vaccination report, the week prior was 64.2%. The percentage of booster-eligible residents (age 12 years and older) that have received one is 58.1%.

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

UPDATE: This article originally used “transmission rate” in place of “reproduction number.”