More Than 11 Percent Of Wisconsinites Have Received At Least 1 COVID-19 Vaccine Dose

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

DHS reported 1,239 new cases of the disease Thursday, bringing the average for the past seven days to 879 daily cases. Daily new cases have been declining since early January, when the average was about 3,000.

There were 11 new deaths from COVID-19 reported Thursday. On Thursday, 5,905 tested negative.

Of the tests for COVID-19 conducted over the past week, 3.6 percent were positive for the disease, according to DHS. That rate has been on the decline since early January. The rate takes into account people who have been tested multiple times.

The positivity rate is often read by public health officials as a measure of overall testing levels. A high rate could indicate that testing in the state is limited, and skewed toward those already flagged as potentially having COVID-19. A lower rate could indicate testing is more widespread. Changes in the test positivity rate can also speak to COVID-19’s spread, if the size and makeup of the testing pool stays consistent.

According to DHS, 1,152,025 doses of coronavirus vaccine have been allocated to Wisconsin by the federal government as of Tuesday, an increase of 165,750 from a week ago. On Thursday, DHS reported that 646,649 Wisconsin residents had received at least one dose, representing 11.1 percent of the state population. As of Thursday, 196,991 people have received both shots in Wisconsin, completing the vaccination series.

A graph showing the number of vaccine doses administered each week since mid-December shows a steady increase each week so far.

According to the Wisconsin Hospital Association, there were 489 COVID-19 patients hospitalized as of Wednesday. A total of 25,142 people have been hospitalized because of the disease, or 4.5 percent of all positive cases.

The latest figures bring the overall total of positive cases in Wisconsin to 553,110 according to DHS. A total of 6,140 people in Wisconsin have died from COVID-19.

COVID-19 activity varies from county to county. The latest activity data from DHS, released Wednesday, showed the state had no counties with a “critically high” level of COVID-19 activity. Nine counties were listed as having a “very high” level of activity and 63 counties had a “high” level of activity. The number of Wisconsin counties at a “critically high” and “very high” level of COVID-19 activity has been decreasing. Wisconsin’s overall level is “high.”

COVID-19 activity designations are based on the number of new cases per a county’s population over a 14-day period, as well as whether there’s an upward or downward trend in new cases.

As of Wednesday, all of Wisconsin’s seven regions were listed as “high” and were seeing “shrinking” levels of COVID-19 activity, according to DHS.

Wisconsin’s daily testing capacity — based on the availability of test supplies and adequate staffing — has grown from 120 available lab tests in early March to 59,273 as of Thursday. The number of actual people with new test results reported Thursday was 7,144.

Throughout the course of the pandemic, 3,105,591 COVID-19 tests have been administered. Of those, 2,552,481 tests have been negative.

___________________________