Hospitals are starting to get a little reprieve. Case numbers trending down.
The seven-day average in Wisconsin is now fewer than 3,000.
The last time numbers were this low was in November.
There are 80 COVID-positive patients in Aspirus hospitals as of Wednesday, the fewest since September 23, 2021.
It’s also a dramatic drop from just a month ago when the hospital was averaging 125 COVID patients a day.
“It is welcomed sight. We’re actually returning to some sense of normalcy amongst this pandemic. Also, in all of hospital locations, we’re actually getting back to some of those scheduled surgeries that were postponed. Those are now starting to return,” said Jenny Redman-Schell, Aspirus Senior Vice President and President of the Aspirus Medical Group.
The downward trend of hospitalizations is being seen across the state.
According to the Wisconsin Hospitals Association, COVID hospitalizations peaked at 2,278 on January 12th.
Now, there’s roughly 1,200 people statewide hospitalized with COVID.
Redman-Schell says it’s a nice reprieve for healthcare workers but asks people to remain vigilant.
“I would expect that we’ll continue to monitor the current situation. We’ll assess if there are additional variants coming out and what we need to stay on top of. I’m hoping that people still with the decrease in positivity, that they still continue those safe practices of social distancing, masking as appropriate and vaccination,” she said.
Vilas, Iron, and Oneida Counties all have more than 60% of their populations fully vaccinated.
Price, Lincoln, and Langlade Counties have between 50 and 56 percent of their populations vaccinated.
49% of people in Forest County are fully vaccinated.