With Dane County seeing a medium level of COVID-19, due to increasing reports of new cases, health officials on Friday again urged residents to get booster shots and second boosters if they qualify and haven’t had the injections.
Reported case activity in the county has been increasing since late March, with a current seven-day average of 159 cases per day, up from about 60 in mid-March. However, COVID-19 hospitalizations have not risen, which officials attributed to the county’s high vaccination rate, treatment options and natural immunity acquired by many people following the omicron variant surge in January.
While the recent increase in cases “is a cause of concern and caution, it is not a cause for alarm,” Janel Heinrich, director of Public Health Madison and Dane County, said in a statement. “We have always been clear that this pandemic is not over; we expect to see peaks and valleys in the number of cases in our community.”
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Barron and Rusk counties also have medium COVID-19 community levels, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in its latest analysis Thursday. The rest of Wisconsin has low levels.
The CDC levels are based on cases per 100,000 residents, new hospitalizations and hospital bed capacity over the past week.
Since many people have turned to home testing for COVID-19, for which results are typically not included in reported cases, health officials are also looking at virus levels in sewage as an indicator of community transmission. According to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, the level of the coronavirus at the Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District has been steady recently, while Green Bay, Janesville, Kenosha, Milwaukee and Racine have seen major increases.
Other cities with major increases recently are Baraboo, Hudson, Marshfield, Platteville, Portage, Superior and Viroqua.
People age 12 and older should get a Pfizer booster five months after their second shot, with the cutoff at age 18 for the Moderna vaccine, the CDC says. People 50 and older can get second boosters four months after their first booster, with older adults and those at high risk of severe disease most in need of getting them, health officials say.
In Dane County, 20% of residents are eligible for booster shots but haven’t received them. “Now is the time to get up to date,” Heinrich said.
The county’s medium level also means people who are immunocompromised or at high risk for severe disease should talk to their health care providers about whether they should wear masks in public, health officials say.
Since many people have turned to home testing for COVID-19, for which results are typically not included in reported cases, health officials are also looking at virus levels in sewage as an indicator of community transmission.
