Here & Now

Keeping Track of COVID-19's Omicron Barrage

Frederica Freyberg:

COVID-19 cases persist in Wisconsin. A new seven-day average of 17,586 positive infections were reported and the state epidemiologist says we have not hit the peak of the omicron surge. “Here & Now” reporter Will Cushman, author of our online “COVID-19 Condition” series joins us now with more. Thanks for being here.

Will Cushman:

Hey, Fred.

Frederica Freyberg:

Last week we learned that a data dump of positive cases contributed to these huge numbers and even later this week a daily count was more than 15,000. Are we kind of just in the real number now or what’s going on with all that?

Will Cushman:

Yeah. Great question. And we are back to kind of new daily case numbers that do reflect the daily reality. The state Department of Health Services did, as you say, kind of dump some data at the end of last week and early this week that resulted in some really high daily case counts, including on Monday. There were over 35,000 new cases reported on just that day. But that was a result of DHS updating its system, automating part of its system due to actually a backlog of cases that had been in the system kind of piling up for a couple of weeks just because of the crush of the omicron surge. But that backlog was cleared early this week, so the case numbers are kind of back to reflecting daily reality.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right. So a lot of people are asking has Wisconsin yet hit this peak. And the state health officials are saying we haven’t. What else are they saying about that?

Will Cushman:

Yeah. They’re saying that the evidence is not there yet that we have hit or are imminently going to hit the omicron peak. They noted that some places around the U.S. probably are a little bit beyond the peak. Those would be the places that got hit first by omicron, places like New York City. They said in a briefing yesterday, on Thursday, that, yeah, we’re not quite there yet. The evidence isn’t quite there yet. They also reminded us that once we do hit that peak, there will be just as many infections on the downside from that peak as there were leading up to it, so we will by no means be out of the woods just because we hit the peak.

Frederica Freyberg:

Good point. The state is putting on the push to protect children to both keep them from getting sick and keep them in school. What do pediatric case counts and hospitalizations look like?

Will Cushman:

Children have accounted for a large part of the cases during the omicron surge. Cases have actually risen most sharply among children of all age groups. There have been about 50,000 new cases among children 18 and younger since the beginning of the year. So that’s just a few weeks. That’s really a very high number of cases. Very few of those actually result in symptoms that are so severe that children are being hospitalized at high rates, but there are children being hospitalized all around the state, including just this last week in Milwaukee County alone 75 children were hospitalized with COVID.

Frederica Freyberg:

And yet as we’re suggesting, it’s still true, is it not, that those cases are not necessarily as severe?

Will Cushman:

Yes. That is true. And I should also add that it’s not totally clear all the time whether children or anyone for that matter, based on the data that we have, are hospitalized because of the symptoms they are experiencing due to COVID or if they’re hospitalized perhaps for another reason and also are testing positive for COVID while they’re in the hospital. Although there are definitely a lot of people in the hospital right now specifically for COVID.

Frederica Freyberg:

Yeah. Very scary. Thank you so much for your information and your reporting on this, Will Cushman.

Will Cushman:

You’re welcome, Fred.

Frederica Freyberg:

For more coverage on the COVID condition in Wisconsin and Will’s reporting, visit PBSwisconsin.org and then click on the news page.