Data Notes for the Week of January 7

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If you’re new to the data snapshot, we publish a weekly summary of the status for each of our metrics (you can find past issues on our data and metrics page). We have a few notes for this week’s issue (data from December 22 through January 4):

There was a significant increase in cases during this 14-day period, and percent positivity increased.

Dane County’s 14-day average number of cases is 168 per day, up from 138 in last week’s snapshot. In this 14-day period there were 2,346 total cases. Percent positivity increased above the desired 5% threshold, to 5.8%. There is a current outbreak in a state Department of Corrections facility which accounts for nearly 9% of our cases during this period. See page 2 of the snapshot for more information on the people impacted by this outbreak.

203 Dane County residents have died from COVID-19, and December has the highest number of deaths with 75.

Two out of every three deaths that have occurred since December 1 were residents of a long-term care facility. The median age of those who died was 84 and the majority were white, non-Latinx. During this last 14-day period, 87 cases were associated with long-term care facilities, which is the fewest in eleven weeks. This is encouraging, given the severe outcomes this population is experiencing here and nationally.

Although we have had a recent increase in deaths, the rate of COVID-19 deaths in Dane County (39.2) is significantly lower than the rate for Wisconsin overall (70.8).

Health inequities persist by race and ethnicity.

We continue to see people of color disproportionately represented among people testing positive and people hospitalized with COVID-19. Page 4 of the snapshot illustrates these inequities.

Nearly 14,000 doses of vaccine have been administered to Dane County residents.

We have begun to receive weekly vaccination data for Dane County residents from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS). Currently, the vaccine is only available to individuals in Tier 1a, which includes residents of long-term care facilities and health care personnel.

Public Health Madison & Dane County is one of a number of agencies helping to provide COVID-19 vaccines to organizations that have frontline healthcare personnel who are not affiliated with a healthcare system, hospital, or long-term care facility. We received 820 doses from DHS on December 29. From those doses we vaccinated 968 people between December 29 and January 2. Each vial of vaccine was intended to provide five doses, but some vials contain enough solution for one or two extra doses. The Food and Drug Administration advised that it is acceptable to use every full dose obtainable from each vial.  

Find more vaccination information on our website.