COVID-19 Cases Hold Steady With More Than 35 Percent Of Wisconsinites Fully Vaccinated

68 New Hospitalizations For Coronavirus Thursday, According to DHS

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A woman with a rolled up sleeve receives a vaccine from a woman wearing blue gloves.
Debra Novak, right, receives the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine Tuesday, May 4, 2021, at St. Francis High School in St. Francis, Wis. High school students and the public were vaccinated at the temporary school clinic. Angela Major/WPR

New reports of COVID-19 cases are holding steady in Wisconsin, based on the latest data published by the state Department of Health Services.

DHS reported 667 new cases of the disease Thursday, bringing the average for the past seven days to 606 daily cases. One week ago, the average was 623 daily cases. More than 1,000 cases of the B.1.1.7 have now been identified in Wisconsin.

There were 4,663 negative tests reported Thursday.

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As COVID-19 cases in Wisconsin remain relatively low, more of the state’s residents are being vaccinated against the disease.

A total of 4,581,912 doses of the coronavirus vaccine have been administered in Wisconsin as of Thursday, with 76 percent of Wisconsinites age 65 and up fully vaccinated.

As of Thursday, 2,086,243 people in Wisconsin, or 35.8 percent of the population, have been fully vaccinated.

Increasing rates of vaccination have provided a sense of hope after a yearlong pandemic that has claimed the lives of 6,877 people in Wisconsin. There were 14 new deaths from COVID-19 reported Thursday.

DHS reported 64 additional hospitalizations Thursday. While they’re holding steady or declining in most of the state, they’re skyrocketing in Western Wisconsin, which includes Buffalo, Crawford, Jackson, La Crosse, Monroe, Trempealeau and Vernon counties. For the week ending Tuesday, they were up 73 percent in the region.

Other DHS data from Thursday include:

  • 601,603 total cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began.
  • 3,470,326 total tests administered, 2,868,723 of which have been negative since the pandemic began.
  • 29,668 people have been hospitalized because of the disease, or 4.9 percent of all positive cases, since the pandemic began.
  • Daily testing capacity remains at 59,273, though only 5,330 new test results were reported Thursday.

Coronavirus rates vary from county to county. In order to track COVID-19 activity levels, DHS looks at the number of new cases per a county’s population over a 14-day period — and whether there’s an upward or downward trend in new cases. Activity levels range from “very high,” “high,” “medium,” to “low.”

As of Wednesday, DHS data showed the state had two counties — Polk and St. Croix — with a “very high” level, while the majority of Wisconsin counties had “high” levels of activity. There were growing case trajectories in two counties and shrinking trajectories in three. Wisconsin’s overall COVID-19 activity level is “high.”

For more about COVID-19, visit Coronavirus in Wisconsin.

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