More Than 40 Percent Of Wisconsinites Have Completed COVID-19 Vaccine Series

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 448 new cases of the disease Thursday, bringing the average for the past seven days to 389 daily cases, the lowest that figure has been since March 23. One week ago, the average was 466 daily cases.

There were 3,331 negative tests reported Thursday.

As COVID-19 cases in Wisconsin continue to decline, more of the state’s residents are being vaccinated against the disease.

A total of 4,953,257 doses of the coronavirus vaccine have been administered in Wisconsin as of Thursday, with 78.1 percent of Wisconsinites age 65 and up fully vaccinated.

As of Thursday, 2,335,093 people in Wisconsin, or 40.1 percent of the population, had completed the COVID-19 vaccination series.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people are considered fully vaccinated two weeks after their second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or two weeks after a single dose of Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen vaccine.

Increasing rates of vaccination have provided a sense of hope after a yearlong pandemic that has claimed the lives of 6,978 people in Wisconsin. There were two new deaths from COVID-19 reported Thursday.

Other DHS data from Thursday include:

• 607,587 total cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began.
• 3,525,661 total tests administered, 2,918,075 of which have been negative since the pandemic began.
• 30,479 people have been hospitalized because of the disease, or 5 percent of all positive cases, since the pandemic began.
• Daily testing capacity remains at 59,273, though only 3,779 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 one county — Polk — with a “very high” level, while the majority of Wisconsin counties had “high” levels of activity. There were growing case trajectories in one county and shrinking trajectories in 12. Wisconsin’s overall COVID-19 activity level is “high.”

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

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