By Kevin Zimmermann
SHEBOYGAN, WI (WHBL) – A spike of 14 new, confirmed cases of COVID-19 was contained in Thursday’s pandemic update from the Sheboygan County Division of Public Health. Additionally, the Facility-Wide Investigation report was indicative of pubic health agencies actively hunting down and containing outbreaks in Sheboygan County.
The 14 positive tests comprised over 8% of total test returns since Wednesday, and 157 returns were negative. Less than 1% were positive Tuesday, and there were no new positives to report on Monday. 1 of the currently active 30 cases of COVID-19 requires hospitalization. 3 more persons have recovered from the disease. Per the rankings determined by the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Sheboygan County is experiencing a Moderate case burden – or rate – and our activity level is considered Medium.
Within Wisconsin another 539 cases of COVID-19 were identified since yesterday, for a total of 29,783 cases. That’s 4.2% of returns that included 12,339 negative results. 7 more persons have died, raising the Badger death toll to 793.
The weekly report on Facility-Wide Investigations was released today, indicating that 6 investigations are active, while 9 have been resolved. Both the Sheboygan Senior Community and Sheboygan Progressive Health Services were named as hosting active investigations. Both are Skilled Nursing Long-term Care Facilities. One additional, unnamed long-term facility is also being investigated, while 4 have been resolved. Two investigations currently involve non-health care workplace investigations, and one active investigation is being conducted at a setting such as adult or child day care center, restaurant, event space or religious setting.
Finally, the County DHS urged residents to stay home ahead of the July 4th holiday weekend. They noted that Wisconsin has seen a recent surge in cases with half of all positive cases coming within the past five weeks. Nearly 20% of total COVID-19 cases in the state have tested positive within the past two weeks. DHS says that this spike in cases is driven in part by an increase in infections among younger people, and contact tracing by some local health departments has revealed that many of these cases can be traced back to bars. Concurrent with those statistics, Sheboygan County’s COVID-19 incidence is dominated by those ages 20-39, which account for 79 of recorded cases. Second place goes to the 40-59 age group with 63 cases. Those 60-79 account for 46 of the total COVID-19 incidents, 25 were recorded in those under age 20 and 11 have occurred in those 80 and older.
