City of Milwaukee Weekly COVID-19 Update

This week, Milwaukee County remains in the Medium COVID-19 Community Level, based on U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines. This level is determined by three metrics:  new COVID-19 admissions per 100,000 population in the past 7 days, the percent of staffed inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 patients, and total new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 population in the past 7 days.

In Milwaukee County, the case rate per 100,000 population is 138.84. This includes the city of Milwaukee’s rate of 126.2 per 100,000. There have been 11 new COVID-19 admissions per 100,000 population and 4% of staffed inpatient beds are in use by patients with confirmed COVID-19. Additional metrics, such as case burden and percent positivity, are accessible on MHD’s COVID-19 data dashboards.

Currently, 65.4% of city of Milwaukee adults 16 years and older are fully vaccinated, and 35.4% of city of Milwaukee adults 16 years and older have received at least one booster dose. Updated bivalent COVID-19 booster doses were recently made available for people 12 and older who have received their primary COVID-19 vaccine series and have not received a COVID-19 vaccine dose in the last two months. These boosters specifically target the original strain of COVID-19 as well as the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants.

The Milwaukee Health Department will begin administration of the updated single-dose COVID-19 bivalent booster vaccine on Monday, September 12, 2022 at the Menomonee Valley Drive-Thru Clinic (2401 W. St. Paul Ave.) and at the Northwest Health Center (7630 W. Mill Rd.) and Southside Health Center (1639 S. 23rd St.) beginning on Tuesday, September 13. More information regarding the Milwaukee Health Department immunization clinics, including hours of operation, can be found at Milwaukee.gov/COVIDvax.

Households in Wisconsin who need at-home COVID-19 tests are eligible for five free tests provided by the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS), mailed directly to their home. These free at-home COVID-19 tests can be ordered at sayyescovidhometest.org. According to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, more than 96,000 households have ordered their free COVID-19 tests through this program.

As these tests arrive at your door, know that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has extended expiration dates for many of the available COVID-19 self-tests, so even if the “use by” date on your tests has passed, the tests may still be good to use. Expiration dates for all at-home COVID-19 tests can be checked on the FDA website. Additionally, iHealth, the manufacturer of the COVID-19 tests currently being distributed by Wisconsin DHS, has an expiration date checker on their website. Be sure to look up the extended expiration date before throwing away any COVID-19 tests.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.

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