Milwaukee sees slight drop in COVID-19 cases, positivity

The Milwaukee Health Department (MHD) released on Friday, Nov. 20 an update on Phase 4.2 of the public health and safety order called "Moving Milwaukee Forward" related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Officials revealed that the city moved from RED to YELLOW in the "cases" gating criteria of the order. The "testing" and "care" criteria remain in the RED.

The order features five total gating 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. 

The slope of linear regression for cases was reported at -0.06; the health department reported that that is not a statistically significant trend. The COVID-19 positivity rate among those tested dropped to 15.5% from the previous week's 19.1% -- the highest recorded since Aug. 6 -- based on an average of 4,267 tests per day.

“We continue to be concerned about the potential for increased COVID-19 infections in Milwaukee following the Thanksgiving holiday next week,” said Marlaina Jackson, Milwaukee's acting health commissioner. “We are asking everyone to put off group celebrations and avoid all contact with people outside of their home.”

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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.

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