By Lynn Binnie
Whitewater Banner volunteer staff
whitewaterbanner@gmail.com
The Walworth County Health & Human Services Department stated in its January 20 weekly report that the county remains in the CDC’s critically high COVID-19 transmission level, along with all other WI counties. The transmission level this week increased to 2226.86 cases per 100,000. Last week’s rate was 1735, and the previous week was “only 686.” Consequently the level has more than tripled in two weeks. Per the CDC website, Jefferson County (2021 cases/100,000) and Rock County (2421 cases/100,000) are in similar situations.
Walworth County statistics as of January 20 can be viewed here. Although it has been indicated that, on average, the Omicron variant of the virus which is now dominating the state is less serious than Delta was, only an average of 7.7% of ICU beds in the county are available. Editor’s note: The ICU availability was initially reported as .077%. It has been corrected on 2/15/22.
Information on testing sites, including at UW-Whitewater, may be found here. As was previously announced on the Banner, the federal government is now mailing four at-home COVID-19 test kits to any residence upon request.
