Data Notes for the Week of April 21, 2022

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You can find past issues on our data and dashboard page. The data below are from April 4—April 17.

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

The number of people hospitalized with COVID in Dane County hospitals was stable with an average of 29 people hospitalized each day. Percent positivity during this 14-day period was 6.8% and an average of 2,078 tests were conducted per day.

Percent positivity is increasing, indicating that we are likely to not be capturing all new cases through testing. Some of this may be due to the popularity of home COVID tests, which are not captured in these data. Testing patterns likely have shifted, such as people testing less overall or testing less when asymptomatic, which may be affecting our percent positivity to some degree. We are still testing more than the rest of the state: we're currently testing at a 7-day average rate of 379.0 tests per 100,000 population per day, which is almost double the rate of the state overall of 201.6 tests per 100,000 per day.

Dane County still has many free options for PCR testing. If you have symptoms or you were exposed to someone who tested positive, get a COVID test. And no matter how you test positive, make sure you follow guidance for isolation.

In March 2022, a person not fully vaccinated was more likely to test positive and be hospitalized than a boosted person.

A person not fully vaccinated in Dane County was 1.2 times more likely to test positive for COVID and 4 times more likely to be hospitalized for COVID than a person fully vaccinated with a booster or additional dose.

Hospitalizations and deaths are at the lowest levels we’ve seen since July 2021. Because rates are so low, it becomes less likely that we’re able to detect meaningful differences between groups. There was no significant difference in death rates between vaccination groups for February + March, and in March there was no significant difference in case or hospitalization rates between people fully vaccinated with the primary series only and people fully vaccinated with a booster/additional dose.

We know that when cases are very high, we see high levels of hospitalizations and deaths among people who are not fully vaccinated (see graph). Hospitalizations and deaths among people who have received a booster have remained remarkably low, even throughout the Omicron wave. We’re currently enjoying a period of low hospitalizations and deaths among all groups, but it is not guaranteed to stay that way, so we still strongly recommend getting up to date on your COVID vaccines, especially as we have been experiencing an increasing number of cases over the past month.

63.3% of Dane County residents ages 5+ are up to date on their COVID vaccines.

20.6% are fully vaccinated but not up to date, 4.4% are partially vaccinated, and 11.7% are not vaccinated. Are you up to date on your vaccine? If not, you can get vaccinated at a quick and free site near you.

The BA.2 Omicron subvariant is likely now the dominant virus strain in Dane County and Wisconsin.

BA.2.12.1 is a subvariant of BA.2 that is even more transmissible than BA.2, and appears to be causing a small surge in cases in New York. BA.2.12.1 has been detected in Dane County and Wisconsin, and the CDC estimates that currently 19% of cases in the US are BA.2.12.1. Learn more about variants in Wisconsin on the State Lab of Hygiene website.