Data Notes for the Week of January 28

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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 January 11 through January 24):

There was a significant decrease in cases during this 14-day period and a significant increase in number of tests conducted. Percent positivity is at its lowest level since August.

Dane County’s 14-day average number of cases is 135 per day, down from 172 last snapshot. In this 14-day period there were 1,883 total cases. Percent positivity is at 2.9%. The University of Wisconsin-Madison recently ramped up testing, accounting for nearly 40% of all tests conducted in the county during this period.

Vaccine coverage has substantially increased among people ages 65+.

Last week, 3.4% of Dane County residents age 65+ had received at least one vaccine dose. As of January 28, coverage has increased to 15.7%. Overall, 8.2% of the Dane County population has received at least one dose of vaccine. 59,950 doses have been administered to Dane County residents and 45,004 people have been vaccinated with at least one dose.

Dane County is following Wisconsin Department of Health Services’ guidelines for vaccine prioritization. People in Tier 1a (frontline healthcare workers) and people 65 years old and older are currently being vaccinated. Keep in mind there are still far more people eligible for vaccine than there are doses available. It will take time to vaccinate everyone in these groups. 

On January 26, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) announced the groups that will be eligible for vaccine starting on March 1, though the start date is dependent on the vaccine supply allocated to Wisconsin from the federal government. See our vaccination page for more information.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been a total of 1,488 probable cases of COVID-19 among Dane County residents (compared to 37,600 confirmed cases).

Twenty-one people with a probable case have died from COVID-19. There are several criteria that define a probable case, which is explained on page 3 of the snapshot. We will begin to include probable cases and deaths on our dashboard in the near future. In the meantime, information on probable cases and deaths can be found on the Wisconsin Department of Health Services’ website.