UWâMadison watching for new variants of virus that causes COVID-19 January 29, 2021
Earlier this month, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services announced that state laboratories had identified for the first time in Wisconsin a variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 called B.1.1.7. The variant, which experts believe to be more contagious, was discovered in December in the United Kingdom after circulating there since September. It is one of a handful of known versions of the virus notable for mutations that may allow them to spread more rapidly and easily from person to person.
None of these variants have been identified yet in Madison or in the UWâMadison community, but they have drawn attention as a cluster of B.1.1.7 infections was recently discovered at the University of Michigan and a variant called P.1 known to be circulating in Brazil just appeared in Minnesota. Another variant that first was found in South Africa, called B.1.351, was also recently identifi
Updated COVID-19 Numbers: Friday, January 29
January 29, 2021
Health officials also reported 28 news deaths bringing the death total to 6,168 in Minnesota.
According to the Minnesota Department of Health website, 6,513,797 tests have been completed to date.
There are 443,253 patients who no longer require isolation.
So far, 24,200 patients have required hospitalization and 5,024 cases have been hospitalized in ICU.
Below are the most recent COVID-19 cases by county in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan:
Carlton: 2,874 – 43 deaths
Cook: 116
Koochiching: 612 – 10 deaths
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What do you do when your COVID-19 vaccine clinic is 20 minutes from closing, only six people showed up for the day s last appointment, and you just opened a 10-dose Moderna vial?
Reports suggest that many clinics dump their leftover doses in the trash.
But some facilities have found solutions to minimize vaccine waste. Relying on constant communication, flexible planning, and a focused workforce including diligent volunteers, they said they have found takers for nearly all the thousands of doses they have prepared since vaccinations began last month. So far this has been not a hard problem to solve, said Dora Anne Mills, MD, who is coordinating the 11-hospital MaineHealth system s vaccination sites. It s really about planning and keeping an eye on things.
January 28: Weekly Driftless Region COVID-19 update
DRIFTLESS - Over the past week COVID-19, diagnoses statewide increased from 522,877 on Monday, Jan. 18 to 533,917 on Monday, Jan. 25. That is a statewide increase of 11,040 cases. The number of deaths increased from 5,470 to 5,699, an additional 229 deaths, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
According to the Monday, Jan. 25 issues of
Up North News, the rolling seven-day average of daily new coronavirus cases (1,597) has declined for 13 consecutive days and is now below 1,600 for the first time since Sept. 18.
The dashboard maintained by the Wisconsin Hospital Association shows the number of COVID-19 in-patients has declined for six consecutive days. The total number of hospitalized patients on Sunday was 761, a level last seen Oct. 4