MADISON, Wis. – Public Health Madison Dane County announced during a weekly press conference Thursday that for the first time in months, COVID-19 is trending in the right direction.
“Cases are continuing to decline and our percent positivity is also declining,” said PHMDC Director Janel Heinrich. “This year has been a challenging one, but there’s hope on the horizon.”
Heinrich laid out the data during Thursday’s briefing. While transmission rates are still considered “high” in Dane County, the 14-day average for new cases has dropped from 252 to 215, and the 7-day average has dropped from 250 to 178. This is coming at a time when hospitalizations are decreasing and more frontline workers are getting vaccinated.
“Things are looking better for Dane County and much of Wisconsin right now,” Heinrich said. “The burden of COVID has been declining for a number of weeks, but we are still experiencing a significant health crisis. We are not out of the woods yet.”
Because of this drop in numbers, Heinrich says Dane County has moved out of a “Crisis Model” for contact tracing it has been in since late November.
In Rock County, despite vaccines not yet reaching healthcare workers, new COVID cases and hospitalizations are declining. While Wisconsin is still nowhere near the herd immunity threshold (70-80 percent of the population possessing antibodies), health experts there say if numbers continue to decline, things can begin reopening possibly ahead of schedule.
“It will definitely be more of a process than a light switch said Jessica Turner of the Rock County Public Health Department. “We don’t need to reach the herd immunity necessarily to start reopening. Our current reopening plan was based on factors other than having the vaccine available.”
However unlike Turner, Heinrich said it’s too early in the process to speculate about a reopening timeline. With 40,000 Dane County residents considered “Tier 1A” (first in line for vaccinations), she says it will be some time before those conversations can begin.
“Vaccine has started to become available in Dane County and throughout the country, but will not be available until later in 2021,” she said. “Until then, we must remain vigilant and continue to practice all the things that will keep us well.”
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