Wisconsin's COVID cases stay down as March ends, but won't ever be all gone

Wanted to give a brief update on the COVID situation in Wisconsin, particularly with some worries starting to resurface about the new Omicron variant causing increases in cases overseas and in a handful of states in America.

For now, cases continue at multi-month lows, although the decline has leveled off in the last couple of weeks.

Deaths have dropped significantly, although catch-up information from the Winter shows that there was real damage from the Delta and (first?) Omicron surges. It wasn't the carnage of the Winter of 2020-21, but it's still a lot of lives.

In Dane County, we still have the lowest COVID death rate of any county in the state, but have actually seen new case rates above the state average in recent weeks (it's still way below anything we had in November, December or January). It's not anything to be too concerned about, but given the high level of travel that UW Spring Breakers just undertook, it's at least worth paying attention to for the next couple of weeks.

Dane County's Public Health Department also just released their update for February in comparing the outcomes for those that have received the COVID vaccine, and those who haven't. While deaths and hospitalizations plummeted last month, there are still notable disparities in what happens to those who get the vaccine (especially those who get boosted) and in people that didn't.

These numbers are reflected in the policy and personal choices we've seen in recent weeks, where mask mandates are a thing of the past and it seems most "going out" activities have returned to levels around where they were before COVID broke out 2 years ago. But that doesn't mean COVID is completely gone, and given that former President Obama, Hillary Clinton and current Press Secretary Jen Psaki all have recently tested positive along with Wisconsin Senate candidate Mandela Barnes, it seems like high-contact and travel situations are where this new variant is more likely to hit.

Not a big deal for them, as I think all are boosted and should be back in regular life in a matter of days (if they haven't already). But for those who think they're entirely in the clear and don't need to at least care if they start getting the coughs and sniffles, it might be more than your typical Spring allergy or cold. Annoying, but if we're mitigating and boosted, it's also not anything to shut ourselves down over.