Data Notes for the Week of February 3

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You can find past issues on our data and dashboard page. The data below are from January 17-January 30.

Cases decreased during this 14-day period with an average of 946 cases per day.

The number of people hospitalized with COVID in Dane County hospitals also decreased with an average of 166 people hospitalized each day. Percent positivity was 16.0% and an average of 5,897 tests were conducted per day.

While percent positivity is decreasing week by week, it is still elevated. A high percent positivity means we are still likely missing cases in our case counts. If you need a test, same day appointments are often available at the Alliant Energy Center. Visit our testing page to make an appointment and pre-register.

Over the past four weeks, cases decreased among all age groups, except for ages 80+ who had a stable trend but the lowest case rate among all age groups. Children currently have the highest case rates and highest percent positivity among all ages. All children ages 5+ are eligible to be vaccinated. Please visit our vaccination page to find a free vaccine near you.

Cases were much higher during the Omicron surge than the winter 2020 peak, but hospitalizations were only slightly higher.

The peak of cases during this Omicron surge was 204% higher than the previous winter 2020 peak, but the peak of hospitalizations during Omicron was just 16% higher than the previous winter 2020 peak. Additionally, our highest number of deaths came during the winter surge of 2020 with 231 COVID deaths from November 2020-January 2021; the number of COVID deaths in November 2021-January 2022 so far is 77, which is 67% lower than the winter 2020 peak.

 

BA.2 was detected in Dane County.

The BA.2 Omicron subvariant was detected in Dane County on January 28. A recent Danish household study preprint found that BA.2 is more transmissible than BA.1, more easily infects people regardless of vaccination status, and unvaccinated people are more likely to transmit it to others.

For more information on BA.2, read the WHO’s variant tracking page.