MADISON, Wis. — Dane County Public Health officials say COVID case counts and hospitalizations have been holding steady or slightly decreasing, but what is changing is the age groups being affected.
In the past two weeks, 21% of all new COVID cases in Dane County are people under the age of 18. Through the rest of the pandemic, that group has only been responsible for 13% of all cases.
Public Health Madison and Dane County Director Janel Heinrich says this isn’t just a case of more of our older population being vaccinated. There’s a higher number of cases in the 12-to-17 age group.
“Though vaccines will get us back to normal, our children don’t have that opportunity,” Heinrich said during a weekly briefing Thursday. “So it’s very important to continue to follow the prevention practices that have kept us well and will continue to keep us well.”
Over the last week, a total of 123 young people were diagnosed with COVID-19.
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