Public Health Madison & Dane County

Read this week's 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 7 through December 20):

The 14-day average for percent positivity is below 5% for the first time in nine weeks.

There was a significant decrease in cases during this 14-day period and a significant increase in the number of tests conducted. Dane County’s 14-day average number of cases is 165 per day, down from 215 in last week’s snapshot. In this 14-day period there were 2,312 total cases. Cases per day ranged from 75 to 296.

The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 remains at a high level.

In the past two weeks, the number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in Dane County has averaged 140 each day. We have continued to see a high number of deaths, particularly among people over the age of 70 living in long-term care facilities. There remain many clusters in assisted living and skilled nursing facilities. An assisted living facility in Verona currently has the largest facility cluster in this 14-day period with 34 cases.

People of color continue to be disproportionately represented among people testing positive and being hospitalized.

Black and Latinx Dane County residents are disproportionately represented among people testing positive for COVID-19. Black and Asian residents are disproportionately represented among people hospitalized. During this two-week period, Black Dane County residents made up 8% of cases and 10% of hospitalizations but make up 6% of the Dane County population. Members of the Latinx population represented 15% of cases but make up 6% of the Dane County population. Asian residents made up 10% of hospitalizations but make up 7% of the Dane County population.

112 people have died from COVID-19 in November or December.

There have been 171 Dane County residents who have lost their lives to COVID-19 over the past nine months. 65% of these deaths have occurred in November or December. Of the 112 people who we lost in November and December, 70% were residents of a long term care facility. The median age of those who died was 86.5 and the majority were white, non-Latinx. The rate of COVID-19 deaths in Dane County is significantly lower than the rate for Wisconsin overall.