Black River Falls set to receive Moderna COVID-19 vaccine
December 23, 2020 3:46 PM Site staff
BLACK RIVER FALLS, Wis. (WKBT) Black River Memorial Hospital in Black River Falls, will receive its first shipment of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine this week for a portion of its staff.
The vaccine will arrive in phases but for now, members of the frontline staff at BRMH will be the first to receive the vaccine due to Wisconsin Department of Health Services guidelines.
The initial shipment will be administered to BRMH employees who work in roles with the greatest potential for exposure including nursing, providers, technicians, housekeeping, food service, and therapists. The rest of the BRMH staff who have opted to receive the vaccine will be vaccinated as future shipments are secured.
Case load less than half of what it was when things were critically high. By Jeramey Jannene - Dec 23rd, 2020 06:12 pm //end headline wrapper ?>COVID-19. Credit: U.S. Army.
According to a weekly Wisconsin Department of Health Services report, 64 out of the state’s 72 counties have a “high” level of COVID-19 spread in the past two weeks.
That’s actually good news, as every county had previously been labeled “very high” or “critically high” as the state had to repeatedly invent new classifications in October and November as case levels set new highs.
The two-week caseload is now less than half of what it was on November 18th.
By Amanda Quintana
Dec 23, 2020 11:13 PM
MADISON, Wis. A mutant strain of coronavirus is spreading fast in the United Kingdom. The new strain is believed to be up to 70% more infectious, but doctors aren’t sure yet if it makes you more sick.
News 3 Now asked Dr. William Hartman at UW Health if the current approved vaccines will work against the mutant strain.
“The real answer is we don’t completely know the answer,” said Hartman. “We suspect that the vaccines will be just fine against this new strain.”
He said it’s the way the virus mutated that’s worrisome. It’s spike proteins hold onto cells more tightly than other strains.
DHS reports 2,799 new cases By Jeramey Jannene - Dec 24th, 2020 02:50 pm //end headline wrapper ?>COVID-19. Credit: U.S. Army.
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services reported 2,799 new COVID-19 cases Thursday from 10,518 processed tests.
The seven-day case total stands at 17,952, well below November 18th’s record report of 45,946. The seven-day testing total stands at 61,726, below November 18th’s record rolling total of 133,019 tests. The testing total is filtered to only include individuals who were tested for the first time or have been tested previously but are receiving their first positive diagnosis.
The seven-day positive case rate, the percentage of tests that confirm a new case of the disease and proxy for if the disease’s spread is growing or slowing, stands at 29.08%, below the record high of 38.12% set December 4th. The 14-day average is 30.2%. The 14-day average set a low of 2.69% on June 19th.