Dr. Hall -- Things are heating up.

Heads up Chippewa Valley - things are heating up. The last three days have seen significant increases in COVID cases in the three counties, particularly Dunn and Eau Claire. The increase in Dunn is pretty well distributed across all age groups, so there doesn't seem to be a clear group at risk vs. not. Very recent increases only bump the 7-day average a bit, but you can see that in EC now, based on the daily averages, they are above the level at which CDC recommends indoor masking for vulnerable individuals. As CDC only updates those levels once weekly, based on a week's data rather than daily averages, they still show EC as Green/Low, but it's likely it will be Yellow/Medium when they update the map next Thursday if this trend continues. Two neighboring counties are at Orange/High Community Levels due to pressure on their hospitals. Overall cases are still relatively low compared to January, of course, but our percent positive is edging up to almost 10% now. We're definitely on the upswing right now, so if you are medically vulnerable, personally cautious, or have a big event coming up that you don't want to take a chance on having to miss, you should consider upping your mitigation game.