Data Notes for the Week of September 23

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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 dashboard page). The data below are from September 6—September 19.

Cases increased during this 14-day period with an average of 142 cases per day.

Last week there was an average of 107 cases per day. The number of people hospitalized with COVID in Dane County hospitals was stable, with an average of 86 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Dane County hospitals each day. We are not able to discern whether these hospitalizations are among Dane County residents or among patients transferred to the Dane County hospitals from the surrounding areas.

Percent positivity was 3.8% and an average of 3,750 tests were conducted per day. Because percent positivity has been holding steady and has remained under 5%, this is a good indication that we’re testing at the level we need to in order to find cases.

There was an increase in cases among people both fully vaccinated and not fully vaccinated during this 14-day period.

There was an increase in cases among people both fully vaccinated and not fully vaccinated during this 14-day period. About half the cases were infections after full vaccination (breakthroughs). The age-adjusted rate of cases during this 14-day period was 738.2 per 100,000 not fully vaccinated residents, which is 3.3 times higher than the rate of 226.4 per 100,000 fully vaccinated residents. 

With more than 70% of our population being fully vaccinated, we can expect an increasing proportion of our daily new cases to be among people who are fully vaccinated. Unvaccinated people are still much more vulnerable, especially to severe COVID.

Over the past four weeks, cases increased among children ages 12-17.

During this 14-day period, youth ages 12-15 who are not fully vaccinated had a case rate of 1,034.5 per 100,000, which was the highest rate among all age groups, and was 20.1 times higher than the case rate for fully vaccinated youth ages 12-15, which was 51.5 per 100,000, which was the lowest rate among all age groups.

Two Dane County children ages 12-17 who have tested positive in the past four weeks have been hospitalized for COVID, neither of whom were vaccinated.

Cases remained stable this week for children under 12, which underscores how important it has been for those eligible to get vaccinated in order to protect those who aren't yet eligible. As a reminder, there are also many options for getting vaccinated in Dane County, and we strongly encourage anyone aged 12 and older to get vaccinated if they haven’t already.

Vaccination rates continue to increase.

73.6% of all Dane County residents have received at least one dose of vaccine and 70.7% have completed the vaccine series. 84.9% of the eligible population (ages 12+) have received at least one dose of vaccine and 81.6% have completed the series.