Data Notes for the Week of January 14

Read the Data Snapshot

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 29 through January 11):

There was a significant increase in cases during this 14-day period, and percent positivity remains above 5%.

Dane County’s 14-day average number of cases is 195 per day, up from 168 in last week’s snapshot. In this 14-day period there were 2,733 total cases. Percent positivity is at 5.9%.

Nearly 4 in 10 people who tested positive reported attending a gathering or party, which is the highest percentage we’ve seen since August.

It’s possible some of the increase in cases we saw during this period were related to holiday gatherings. As a reminder, every time you gather or have close contact with others it is an opportunity for disease spread. Since you can feel fine and still spread COVID-19 to others, limiting gatherings and close contact with others keeps more people healthy.

218 Dane County residents have died from COVID-19.

December had the greatest number of deaths, which has increased from the last snapshot to 82. Because it can take time to receive a death certificate, we are still learning about deaths associated with COVID-19 from last year. Two out of every three deaths that occurred since December 1 were residents of a long-term care facility.

The COVID-19 death rate is significantly lower in Dane County compared to Wisconsin for each racial/ethnic group. Within Dane County, Black people have a significantly higher death rate than white and Asian people. See page 5 of the snapshot for more information.

Health inequities persist by race and ethnicity.

Hispanic Dane County residents are disproportionately represented among people testing positive and Black residents are disproportionately represented among people hospitalized for COVID-19. As mentioned above, Black Dane County residents have a significantly higher COVID-19 death rate than white and Asian residents.

25,099 doses have been administered to Dane County residents.

These doses were administered through January 11. Public Health Madison & Dane County is one of a number of agencies providing COVID-19 vaccines to organizations that have frontline healthcare personnel who are not affiliated with a healthcare system, hospital, or long-term care facility.

A draft document with Tier 1b definitions is currently available for public comment but has not been formalized by DHS yet. If you are not a frontline healthcare worker classified as Tier 1a, there is no "waitlist" for the vaccine or any action needed from you at this time. After state guidelines are decided for 1b, and we are finished vaccinating Tier 1a, we can begin vaccinating people in 1b in Dane County.

Find more vaccination information on our website.