Milwaukee Health Department reports improved COVID-19 care
Milwaukee City Hall
MILWAUKEE - The Milwaukee Health Department (MHD) released on Friday, Jan. 29 an update on Phase 4.2 of the public health and safety order "Moving Milwaukee Forward" related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Friday, the health department reported changes to the cases and care gating criteria.
The order features five total criteria: cases, testing, care, safety (PPE) and tracing. Each gating criteria can be assigned a status of GREEN, YELLOW or RED -- red being the most severe.
Over the past week, the Milwaukee Health Department moved cases from GREEN to YELLOW -- reporting no statistically significant trend. Care moved from YELLOW to GREEN, meaning the percentage of hospital beds used to treat COVID-19 patients.
For testing, which remained in the GREEN, MHD reported an average of 8% positive based on an average of 2,536 tests per day.
That is down from 8.2%, based on 2,775 tests per day. It is the ninth consecutive MHD report to show declining positivity, having reached as high as 19.1% in early November.
The remaining criteria remained in the YELLOW.
"The Milwaukee Health Department steadily works to crush COVID here, and we are doing that in multiple ways. We are expanding vaccination, maintaining testing, reviewing public health orders, enforcing those orders, and reaching out with information and services throughout the city," Acting Commissioner Marlaina Jackson said. "People in Milwaukee are taking steps to reduce COVID-19 infections, and the percentage of positive tests here indicates we are on a more encouraging course than our surrounding cities."
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MHD will continue to monitor the situation and determine if additional protective measures are necessary to reduce the spread of COVID-19.
The City of Milwaukee's key indicators for Moving Milwaukee Forward Safely have been updated as they are every Thursday and are available online at milwaukee.gov/coronavirus.
Milwaukee County leaders discuss COVID-19 latest
Leaders with the City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County on Thursday, Jan. 28 provided an update regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.