Marisa Wojcik:

COVID-19 variants continue to spread in neighboring states, but have they yet breached Wisconsin’s borders in similar numbers? And how well is Wisconsin doing in its campaign to vaccinate everyone 16 and older? For the latest on the condition of COVID-19 in the state, we turn to our own “Here & Now” reporter Will Cushman. And, Will, thank you so much for being here today.

Will Cushman:

Thanks, Marisa.

Marisa Wojcik:

So can you give us an overall update on where the state is with COVID cases, hospitalizations and deaths?

Will Cushman:

Sure. So currently the seven-day average for COVID-19 cases, that’s new daily cases, is hovering between 600 and 650. That’s 25% lower than it was just a couple weeks ago but still about nearly twice as high as it was at some points in March. At the same time, it’s still a lot lower than it was during the surge in November when the seven-day average actually topped about 6,500 for a little while. The seven-day average for deaths is creeping up a little bit this week. It’s at about a dozen right now. Last week it was hovering around four or five. The seven-day average for new hospitalizations is about 60. It’s been hovering there for a week or two.

Marisa Wojcik:

And where do vaccination rates and totals currently stand?

Will Cushman:

Sure. Currently right now about 43% of Wisconsinites have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. So that’s about 2.5 million Wisconsinites. Now within the last day or so, fully over one-third of Wisconsinites are fully — or at least have completed their vaccine series. So that’s nearly two million Wisconsinites.

Marisa Wojcik:

In terms of geographic distinctions, why do vaccination rates look different across Wisconsin?

Will Cushman:

That’s a really good question, and the vaccination rates are really kind of starting to diverge at the county level. Dane County is now leading the way, with nearly 60% of residents receiving at least one dose. A couple other counties are close behind. Those are some kind of smaller counties with a lot of retirees. That would be Door County and Bayfield County. And then there’s a large swath of the state that’s pretty close to the state average, around 40%. But then there’s a group of counties outside of Eau Claire where vaccination rates are really lagging. That includes Taylor County and Clark County, where not even a quarter of residents have received one dose. So there are a whole lot of reasons why vaccination rates are varying, but any more — or earlier in the vaccination campaign, a lot of that had to do with who was eligible for the vaccine and whether a county had a lot of older residents or a lot of health care workers made a pretty significant impact. But now it has a lot more to do with who wants to get a COVID-19 vaccine now that we’re nearly a month into universal eligibility for adults. So we’re seeing parts of the state where people are clamoring for vaccine, including Dane County and some other suburban areas, La Crosse County, Eau Claire County. And then some predominantly rural parts of the state people are not clamoring for vaccines quite as much. In some ways, those patterns kind of reflect the annual flu vaccine rates around the state. There’s a whole number of reasons why some people are kind of hesitant to get a vaccine. There has been some analyses, nationwide analysis by the New York Times, showed that counties that went for President Trump and have a lot of Republican voters are kind of lagging in vaccination rates. A similar, Wisconsin-level analysis by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel found something similar going on here in Wisconsin.

Marisa Wojcik:

Will Cushman, thank you very much.

Will Cushman:

Thank you.

Marisa Wojcik:

Will’s reports can be found at PBSwisconsin.org, then click on the news page.