Respiratory Illness Dashboard
Key Takeaways for the Week of October 15, 2026
- We have launched the fall version of the respiratory dashboard, which means the school absence and school air sampling data are back! New this year is a page called “What else is going around," which shows less specific respiratory conditions, like pneumonia and bronchitis, but more specific age groups.
- Based on emergency department data, COVID-19 and RSV activity remain very low, while flu activity has risen from very low to low, matching an earlier-than-usual rise nationally. Flu diagnoses are increasing in most age groups and flu is showing up in wastewater and school air samplers, so now is the time to get your annual flu vaccine and protect yourself against severe illness.
- The percent of tests positive for adenovirus, parainfluenza,as well as rhino- and enterovirus have been steadily increasing since the middle of September, and are currently the most frequently detected of any of the respiratory viruses.
- The Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene is currently upgrading its testing methods, temporarily pausing wastewater data updates. This means the Madison and Oregon wastewater sites have not yet received new COVID-19 wastewater data since the end of August.
Dashboard Update Schedule
This dashboard is updated on Thursdays at 12:30 pm. If the dashboard is not updated then, we may be experiencing technical issues; check back at 4:30 pm. If we experience a delay in receiving data from one of our data sources, that data element will be updated the following week.
About These Data
Learn more about these data by reading our data notes
How to Prevent Illness
Other Data
- Wisconsin Department of Health Services
- Wastewater Data: Summary, COVID-19, Flu & RSV
- Vaccination Data: COVID-19, Flu, RSV
- Respiratory Illness Data
- Emergency Department Visit Data for COVID-19, Influenza, and RSV
- Laboratory-Based Respiratory Virus Data
- National COVID data
- National Flu data
- Wisconsin State Lab of Hygiene
Wastewater Data
This dashboard from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services shows the levels of COVID in wastewater across the state. To see the most up-to-date data for Madison, click on "Madison" in the left column.