Wisconsin sets new record for “shots in the arm”; coronavirus cases, hospitalizations still trending up

MADISON, Wis. (WBAY) – Wisconsin set a new record for administering the COVID-19 vaccine. The number of “shots in the arm” increased by 73,906 over Wednesday’s report, to a total of 2,516,716 doses administered since vaccinations began 102 days ago. The one-day increase is well above the 7-day average of 53,362 shots per day, which is also a record high. These include doses given to Wisconsin and out-of-state residents.

More than 900,000 Wisconsin residents have now completed their vaccination regimen. Thursday the Wisconsin Department of Health Services announced 917,203 people have had both shots of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines or one shot of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. That’s 24,057 more people than Wednesday’s report.

To date, 1,586,619 Wisconsin residents received at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine. The state is averaging 35,018 people a day getting a COVID-19 vaccine. That’s also a record for that 7-day average.

Almost 3 in 4 adults 65 and older have received at least one dose (73.7%). More than 1 in 2 (52.2%) have completed the regimen. More than 1 in 4 adults ages 35 to 64 have received at lesat one dose; more than 12% of that age group are fully vaccinated.

Vaccination numbers for Northeast Wisconsin counties appear later in this article.

VACCINE SUPPLY INCREASES

With a bump in its COVID-19 vaccine supply, Wisconsin may be turning a corner in the pandemic but officials stated it’s still early. “It’s a 9-inning baseball game, and we are only in probably the third inning,” DHS Deputy Secretary Julie Willems Van Dijk said.

Several clinics across the state, including Bellin Health and Prevea Health in Green Bay, received more doses of the Pfizer vaccine this week as part of extra allocations the federal government shared. “We had a temporary bump in our Pfizer vaccine this week. We were at about 94,000 Pfizer doses when we’re usually at 80,000,” Willems Van Dijk said.

Yet, DHS cautioned that it’s still not ready to move up the May 1 date when all adults are eligible for vaccinations. More than a dozen states are opening vaccinations sooner to people 16 and older.

“Once we feel confident in the supply of vaccine that we’re receiving, and the pacing of vaccine, we will make a decision and we will announce it,” Willems Van Dijk said.

In late January/early February, the state was receiving 70,000 vaccine doses and it’s now getting upwards of 300,000. Next week, DHS will receive 35,000 doses of Johnson and Johnson’s single-shot vaccine, which doesn’t require cold storage unlike the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

“We’ve seen very low amounts of Johnson and Johnson since that initial shipment in early March, and as promised, we’re seeing higher levels of Johnson and Johnson promised to us next week,” Van Willems Dijk said.

After the current phase of high risk individuals is done, officials said it will eliminate phases.

NEW CASES, HOSPITALIZATIONS ARE UP

Despite the state’s success vaccinating residents so far (after an admittedly shaky rollout), coronavirus cases and COVID-19 hospitalizations are on upward swings. While nowhere near the numbers we saw from November to January, by our calculations Wisconsin is averaging 459 new cases a day over the past 7 days, putting us back in territory we left behind almost a month ago. The state DHS reports 537 positive results were in the latest batch of 5,014 tests, or almost 11% of the tests for people being tested for the first time or testing positive. The positivity rate is much lower when you count all tests, including people tested multiple times, but is 2.5% for a second day, after falling to a low of 2.0% on March 10.

Positive tests came back for 55 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties, including 18 counties that added only 1 or 2 cases. Milwaukee County passed 100,000 confirmed cases.

Sixty more people were hospitalized for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, above the 7-day average, which climbed to 46 patients per day. The percentage of all cases resulting in hospitalizations rose from 4.7% to 4.8%. A total 27,314 people have been hospitalized for the disease caused by the coronavirus since it was first confirmed in Wisconsin.

The state reports 6,599 people have died putting that metric back in single digits after two days. Deaths were added in Dane, Iowa, Jackson, Milwaukee and Trempealeau counties, while death counts were revised in Outagamie, Rock, and Waupaca counties for a net gain of 2 deaths. The state is still averaging 6 deaths per day and the death rate is still 1.15% of all cases.

County-by-county case and death totals are listed later in this article.

Since February 5, 2020, the state reports:

• 574,436 confirmed coronavirus cases
• 27,314 hospitalizations (4.8% of all cases)
• 6,599 COVID-19 deaths (1.15%)
• 561,078 recoveries (97.7% of cases)
• 6,600 cases still active (1.1%)

THURSDAY’S VACCINATIONS IN NORTHEASTERN WISCONSIN

(Daily cases and deaths by county are listed toward the end of this article. You can also view county numbers on the state DHS website, CLICK HERE.)

• CLICK HERE to track vaccine data in Wisconsin
• CLICK HERE for a full list of eligible medical conditions in the next phase that started Monday, March 22
• CLICK HERE for the First Alert Vaccine Team’s guide to vaccine clinics and vaccinators, including phone numbers and websites to make appointments and information on free rides to appointments.

HOSPITAL READINESS

Despite 60 more people admitted to hospitals for COVID-19, there are 9 fewer COVID patients in hospitals Thursday compared to the day before when you take discharges and deaths into account.

The Wisconsin Hospital Association reports there are currently 239 patients hospitalized for COVID-19, including 65 in ICU, in the state’s 136 hospitals. That’s 3 more in ICU than Wednesday, the fourth time that number has increased in 5 days. It’s the most COVID-19 patients in ICU in over two weeks.

Hospitals statewide report 281 ICU beds are open (19.2%) and 2,069 of all types of hospital beds -- ICU, intermediate care, medical surgical and negative-flow isolation -- are open (18.5%).

Hospitals in the seven-county Northeast region report 33 COVID-19 patients, with 11 in ICU. That’s 2 more in ICU than the day before, and 1 more patient overall. The ten hospitals in this region had 27 ICU beds (13.0%) and 238 of all beds (24.9%) available.

The eight-county Fox Valley region’s hospitals had 14 COVID-19 patients, with 3 in ICU, which is 1 more ICU patient than Wednesday but treating one less patient overall. The 13 hospitals there had 8 open ICU beds (7.7%) among them and 97 of all beds (11.4%) available overall.

These beds are for all patients, not just COVID-19. We use the terms “open” and “available,” but whether a hospital can put a patient in that bed depends on having enough staff available, including doctors, nurses and food services.

THURSDAY’S COUNTY CASE AND DEATH TOTALS (counties with new cases or deaths are indicated in bold) *

Wisconsin

• Adams – 1,613 cases (+2) (10 deaths)
• Ashland – 1,194 cases (+1) (16 deaths)
• Barron – 5,507 cases (+2) (76 deaths)
• Bayfield - 1,071 cases (+3) (19 deaths)
• Brown – 30,570 cases (cases revised -9 by state) (229 deaths) (+2)
• Buffalo – 1,324 cases (7 deaths)
• Burnett – 1,225 cases (+3) (22 deaths)
• Calumet – 5,577 (+12) (46 deaths)
• Chippewa – 7,164 cases (+4) (93 deaths)
• Clark – 3,164 cases (+1) (58 deaths)
• Columbia – 5,155 cases (+6) (56 deaths)
• Crawford – 1,677 cases (+1) (17 deaths)
• Dane – 41,792 (+72) (289 deaths) (+1)
• Dodge – 11,553 cases (+4) (158 deaths)
• Door – 2,496 cases (+12) (21 deaths)
• Douglas – 3,721 cases (+4) (29 deaths)
• Dunn – 4,341 cases (+1) (30 deaths)
• Eau Claire – 11,202 cases (+15) (105 deaths)
• Florence - 429 cases (+1) (12 deaths)
• Fond du Lac – 12,052 cases (103 deaths)
• Forest - 934 cases (+1) (23 deaths)
• Grant – 4,718 cases (+2) (83 deaths)
• Green – 3,306 cases (+9) (16 deaths)
• Green Lake - 1,528 cases (18 deaths)
• Iowa - 1,943 cases (+4) (11 deaths) (+1)
• Iron - 564 cases (+3) (21 deaths)
• Jackson - 2,589 cases (+5) (28 deaths) (+1)
• Jefferson – 8,019 cases (cases revised -1 by state) (106 deaths)
• Juneau - 3,036 cases (20 deaths)
• Kenosha – 14,920 cases (+1) (303 deaths)
• Kewaunee – 2,351 cases (cases revised -4 by state) (24 deaths)
• La Crosse – 12,377 cases (+12) (80 deaths)
• Lafayette - 1,488 cases (+1) (6 deaths)
• Langlade - 1,942 cases (32 deaths)
• Lincoln – 2,934 cases (+3) (58 deaths)
• Manitowoc – 7,333 cases (+4) (67 deaths)
• Marathon – 13,831 cases (+7) (184 deaths)
• Marinette - 3,996 cases (+5) (65 deaths)
• Marquette – 1,325 cases (+1) (21 deaths)
• Menominee - 794 cases (11 deaths)
• Milwaukee – 100,060 (+127) (1,256 deaths) (+1)
• Monroe – 4,369 cases (34 deaths)
• Oconto – 4,319 cases (+3) (49 deaths)
• Oneida - 3,476 cases (+5) (68 deaths)
• Outagamie – 19,762 cases (+21) (197 deaths) (deaths revised -1 by state)
• Ozaukee – 7,817 cases (+8) (81 deaths)
• Pepin – 817 cases (+1) (7 deaths)
• Pierce – 3,593 cases (+11) (35 deaths)
• Polk – 4,028 cases (+7) (45 deaths)
• Portage – 6,536 cases (+2) (66 deaths)
• Price – 1,174 cases (7 deaths)
• Racine – 20,608 cases (+9) (335 deaths)
• Richland - 1,297 cases (15 deaths)
• Rock – 14,683 cases (+18) (164 deaths) (deaths revised -1 by state)
• Rusk - 1,278 cases (cases revised -2 by state) (16 deaths)
• Sauk – 5,430 cases (+4) (44 deaths)
• Sawyer - 1,556 cases (+2) (22 deaths)
• Shawano – 4,619 cases (cases revised -4 by state) (69 deaths)
• Sheboygan – 13,196 cases (+11) (133 deaths)
• St. Croix – 6,646 cases (+9) (47 deaths)
• Taylor - 1,798 cases (23 deaths)
• Trempealeau – 3,432 cases (+7) (38 deaths) (+1)
• Vernon – 1,869 cases (+1) (38 deaths)
• Vilas - 2,186 cases (+2) (39 deaths)
• Walworth – 8,991 cases (+10) (133 deaths)
• Washburn – 1,343 cases (+2) (18 deaths)
• Washington – 14,037 cases (+15) (139 deaths)
• Waukesha – 41,760 cases (+64) (498 deaths)
• Waupaca – 4,757 cases (cases revised -13 by state) (116 deaths) (deaths revised -1 by state)
• Waushara – 2,117 cases (cases revised -3 by state) (31 deaths)
• Winnebago – 17,394 cases (+27) (186 deaths)
• Wood – 6,733 cases (+5) (77 deaths)

Michigan’s Upper Peninsula **

• Alger - 284 cases (1 death)
• Baraga - 516 cases (33 deaths)
• Chippewa - 809 cases (+17) (25 deaths) (+1)
• Delta – 2,744 cases (+9) (67 deaths) (+1)
• Dickinson - 2,168 cases (+1) (55 deaths)
• Gogebic - 962 cases (+2) (21 deaths)
• Houghton – 2,247 cases (+8) (31 deaths)
• Iron – 871 cases (+3) (42 deaths)
• Keweenaw – 124 cases (1 death)
• Luce – 135 cases (+1)
• Mackinac - 308 cases (+2) (3 deaths)
• Marquette - 3,562 cases (+8) (55 deaths)
• Menominee - 1,644 cases (+1) (39 deaths)
• Ontonagon – 374 cases (20 deaths)
• Schoolcraft - 240 cases (+3) (4 deaths)

* Cases and deaths are from the daily DHS COVID-19 reports, which may differ from local health department numbers. The DHS reports cases from all health departments within a county’s boundaries, including tribal, municipal and county health departments; county websites may not. Also, public health departments update their data at various times, whereas the DHS freezes the numbers it receives by the same time every day to compile the afternoon report.

**The state of Michigan does not update numbers on Sundays. Monday’s numbers include updates since Saturday’s reporting deadline.

CDC GUIDANCE ON GATHERINGS

The Centers for Disease Control have announced that fully vaccinated Americans can gather with other vaccinated people indoors without wearing a mask or social distancing.

The CDC’s recommendations also say vaccinated people can come together in the same way – in a single household -- with people considered at low-risk for severe disease, such as in the case of vaccinated grandparents visiting healthy children and grandchildren.

The CDC is continuing to recommend that fully vaccinated people still wear well-fitted masks, avoid large gatherings, and physically distance themselves from others when out in public. The CDC also advised vaccinated people to get tested if they develop symptoms that could be related to COVID-19.

COVID-19 TRACING APP

Wisconsin’s COVID-19 tracing app, “Wisconsin Exposure Notification,” is available for iOS and Android smartphones. No download is required for iPhones. The Android app is available on Google Play. When two phones with the app (and presumably their owners) are close enough, for long enough, they’ll anonymously share a random string of numbers via Bluetooth. If someone tests positive for the coronavirus, they’ll receive a code to type into the app. If your phones “pinged” each other in the last 14 days, you’ll receive a push notification that you are at risk of exposure. The app doesn’t collect personal information or location information, so you won’t know from whom or where, but you will be told what day the exposure might have occurred so that you can quarantine for the appropriate amount of time.

SYMPTOMS

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identified these as possible symptoms of COVID-19:

• Fever of 100.4 or higher
• Cough
• Shortness of breath
• Chills
• Repeated shaking with chills
• Muscle pain
• Headache
• Sore throat
• New loss of taste or smell

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