by Kevin Zimmermann
SHEBOYGAN, WI (WHBL) – Sheboygan County will remain in Phase-2 of its Safe Restart program, the set of guidelines established for orderly reopening towards normal when the pandemic declines. That decline, however, remains elusive.
Eleven new positive test returns were received since Thursday’s update, that among 198 returns in all. That’s a 5.5% positive return rate, and up from Thursday’s 4.3%. The rate of increase in total cases here has leveled off somewhat since the beginning of the month, however both the Activity Level in Sheboygan County and the “Burden”, or case rate, are rated “High” by the State DHS. These two metrics combined comprise one of the six metrics used in the Safe Restart Program to trigger movement to another phase of the program. Another metric depends upon Wisconsin displaying a downward trajectory of positive cases of COVID-19 as a percentage of total tests in Wisconsin, and this also has failed to materialize. The ability to test all symptomatic residents in the County, the availability of PPE to health care personnel, and the ability to trace every resident who tests positive for COVID-19 in the county remain in the status of “proceed with caution”, and only one metric – that of the ability for hospitals to care for all patients without resorting to crisis standards – is in the “Excellent” category. Thus, we remain in Phase-2 as we have been since June 2nd.
Besides the 11 new positive cases, the county recorded 8 recoveries, leaving a net gain of 3 in the active case total of 88. 7 persons are now hospitalized with COVID-19 here, up 2 from Thursday. (The county erroneously reported 4 hospitalizations; there were 5.)
Within the state borders, 2 more persons died since Thursday raising the state death toll to 1,113. Of 9,156 persons receiving their test results, 843 – or 9.2% – were positive, raising the 7-day average to 8.4%. Hospitalizations increased by 52, putting the patient load now at 291 and with 96 of those in the ICU. Another 124 persons are hospitalized for symptoms of COVID-19, but haven’t yet been confirmed positive. 357 persons are on ventilators.
The County DPH has released criteria to be used by Sheboygan County Schools in decision making concerning reopening and operations. The document contained a workflow that can be used to determine whether there is low, moderate, high or severe risk of operations, and operational recommendations for each of those. The plan can be accessed through Friday’s daily update from the County DPH at sheboygancounty.com
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