Here & Now

Covid Returns to Crisis Levels in the Northwoods

Frederica Freyberg:

In the midst of the holiday season COVID continues to pound Wisconsin with Delta still being the dominant variant and Omicron moving in. Forty counties are in the critically high category for positive cases. Daily numbers show 3,965 positive cases across the state today. And the rate of the state population who have received two vaccines sits at 57.7%. Marathon County is one of those in the critically high category. 53.5% of the county’s population has completed the vaccine series. We turn now to Laura Scudiere, public health officer of Marathon County. Thanks very much for being here.

Laura Scudiere:

Thank you so much for having me.

Frederica Freyberg:

So what are the trends for COVID positivity looking like in your county?

Laura Scudiere:

Yeah. Well, currently Marathon County has one of the highest rates of disease, hospitalizations and deaths in the state. What we’re seeing is we’re at a critically high level according to DHS. What that means is our case numbers are climbing and hospitals in our areas are either at capacity or nearing capacity and they’re having staffing shortages.

Frederica Freyberg:

What are your concerns heading into the holidays, the holiday weeks ahead?

Laura Scudiere:

Yeah. We — I’m concerned about further spread, particularly with family gatherings between unvaccinated individuals and individuals that are taking no precautionary measures whatsoever. I think that there is a feeling within our county that people just want to be done. They just want to be done with the pandemic. And I wish I could say that we are done. We are not done with it. We need people to consider vaccination, seek out vaccination sites. And all the same precautionary measures we were taking this time last year should still apply.

Frederica Freyberg:

So Marathon County’s vaccine rate, as we mentioned, for two shots is 53.5%. What is your reaction to that level of vaccination protection in your communities?

Laura Scudiere:

I would really love it to be higher. We’ve been really working hard for it to be higher. I’ve done a great deal of research on what would, in effect, help people understand more about vaccination and encourage them to take that option. And what I found is that generally at this point people have been saturated with messages about vaccination. So really what we’re looking at is in order to move people towards vaccination, it would be extremely time-intensive resource, like lots of discussion one-on-one with individuals. So I think the better — the better measure that we’ve been taking is actually to work with individuals through listening, empathy, talking with people and actually sharing information rather than just forcing information about vaccine down people’s throats.

Frederica Freyberg:

We’re talking about getting vaccinated at all, but what is the uptake in your county for boosters?

Laura Scudiere:

Actually, we’ve been seeing a good deal of boosters get — go through. We have a vaccination site with the state here in Marathon County in addition to the hospital systems. And what we’ve been seeing is that there was a dramatic increase the week that boosters were offered. And we’ve also seen an increase in children getting vaccinated. We would love to see more people take that option.

Frederica Freyberg:

At this point, have you isolated any of the Omicron variant?

Laura Scudiere:

So we are not aware of Omicron being in Marathon County yet, but we anticipate it any day now. We have noticed that Omicron is in Wisconsin. But in our area, Delta remains the dominant variant. And to that, our strategies haven’t changed. Again, the best way to protect yourself against this variant and all variants is to get vaccinated.

Frederica Freyberg:

And yet Omicron coming into the state of Wisconsin, I mean, I have read that it is more transmissible and then if you have that higher rate of unvaccinated people, that’s got to be a concern.

Laura Scudiere:

Yes. So that is actually a big concern of ours. We expect that even if you are vaccinated, fully vaccinated and boosted, with Omicron we are expecting breakthrough infections to occur and we are looking at the transmission rate of Omicron because we believe it is higher. We’re not sure yet whether or not Omicron will actually cause more severe disease and cause more hospitalizations at this rate. We’re hoping it won’t.

Frederica Freyberg:

Hoping it won’t because you’ve already described how the hospitals are at capacity or very near. Are you looking into alternative places to care for patients?

Laura Scudiere:

Well, currently we’re actually trying to talk about how to be more creative with the hospital systems that we currently have. So hospital systems, in the past if you had to go to a hospital, you would be admitted to that hospital and be there for your entire stay. At this point, that seems like that’s not exactly what’s going to happen going forward because, again, they’re thinking creatively about how to use staff and how to use resources effectively. If someone goes into a hospital system in our area right now, they may be transferred to a different hospital based on whether or not they get better or worse. That’s something we’re trying to help patients in our area understand that that could happen to them.

Frederica Freyberg:

We wish you luck as you battle this going forward. Laura Scudiere, thank you very much.

Laura Scudiere:

Thank you so much.