All Wisconsin Residents, 16 And Up, Now Eligible For COVID-19 Vaccine

Starting Monday all Wisconsinites age 16 and up are eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. There are many places to get vaccinated, including local health departments, pharmacies, and community-based vaccination clinics.

But even as access to vaccines widens, new reports of COVID-19 cases are on the rise in Wisconsin, based on the latest data published by the state Department of Health Services.

DHS reported 307 new cases of the disease Monday, bringing the average for the past seven days to 591 daily cases. One week ago, the average was 468 daily cases. It’s typical for DHS to report fewer confirmed COVID-19 cases on Mondays, with labs usually posting fewer test results the day before.

There were 2,502 negative tests reported Monday.

As COVID-19 cases in Wisconsin remain significantly lower than they were at the beginning of the year, more of the state’s residents are being vaccinated against the disease.

A total of 3,087,492 doses of the coronavirus vaccine have been administered in Wisconsin as of Monday, with 63.3 percent of Wisconsinites age 65 and up fully vaccinated.

As of Monday, 1,171,309 people in Wisconsin, or 20.1 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 6,640 people in Wisconsin. There was one new death from COVID-19 reported Monday.

Other DHS data from Monday include:

• 580,184 total cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began.
• 3,329,698 total tests administered, 2,749,514 of which have been negative since the pandemic began.
• 27,797 people have been hospitalized because of the disease, or 4.8 percent of all positive cases, since the pandemic began.
• Daily testing capacity remains at 59,273, though only 2,809 new test results were reported Monday.

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 “critically high,” “very high,” “high,” “medium,” to “low.”

As of Wednesday, DHS data showed the state had no counties with “critically high” or “very high” levels of COVID-19 activity. The majority of Wisconsin counties have “high” levels of activity. There were growing case trajectories in eight counties, and shrinking trajectories in four. Wisconsin’s overall COVID-19 activity level is “high.”

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

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