COVID updates from Dr. Hall 6/6/2022

Weekly Data Update for Dunn County. Transmission continues to be high, and overall community level continues as low.Case rates seem to have plateaued at a high level for now. Unfortunately, we broke our many-weeks stretch of no fatalities with a death of a person in their 80's this past week. In May, we had 3x as many hospitalizations as in April, which fits with the increase in cases that occurred. Of note, however, the ratio of hospitalizations to reported cases was much higher than the previous Omicron surge, and is likely due to two factors - significant under-diagnosing and under-reporting of cases (creating a falsely low denominator) and a higher proportion of cases in older people (who are at higher risk of hospitalization) than seen in previous waves. If you are a low-risk person in a low-risk household and have no significant upcoming plans that you don't want disrupted, you do not need to take precautions, as long as you understand that your risk of getting infected (if you're not within 90 days of a previous infection) is quite high right now. If you have travel plans or a big event coming up, think very carefully about how cautious you may want to be. For those who are high-risk or risk-avoidant, the good news is that the weather is wonderful, so take advantage of outdoor dining and gatherings - there have been virtually no cases of transmission in an outdoor setting.