As anniversary nears, COVID cases spike again

It seemed like Trempealeau County was nearing the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, but an outbreak last week reminded residents that the disease that has impacted nearly the entire world for the past year hasn’t gone away yet.

While cases had been declining to totals not seen since last May, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services reported 34 new cases last week — the most since the second week of February. That broke a streak of five straight weeks with fewer than 20 cases.

Amongst the new cases were more than 10 in the Whitehall School District, which was forced to close for the first time all year last Friday. The district was already scheduled to be off throughout this week and has announced plans to return to class on April 6, following the school’s spring break.

Seventeen of the 34 new cases were in the Whitehall-area according to the DHS. Eleva had five new cases, Osseo had four, Galesville had three and Arcadia had two and none of the other municipalities in the county had more than one.

In addition to the outbreak of new cases, the DHS also reported one more death, bringing the county’s total to 38. The county’s case fatality percentage of 1.1 percent is inline with the state average, though the deaths per 100,000 people of 129.6, higher than the state rate of 114.2.

 The recent outbreak comes as the anniversary of the first case in Trempealeau County nears. The Trempealeau County Health Department announced the first case on April 1 of last year. What followed was months of increased activity, including 1,301 cases in the month of November. 

Arcadia was hit hard early in the pandemic and still had had the most cases with 810. Osseo has had 526 cases followed by Galesville, 409; Trempealeau, 385; Eleva, 366; Whitehall, 338; Independence, 293; Blair, 226; Strum, 207 and Ettrick 174.

While case totals have been low in recent weeks, Trempealeau County still has the fifth-highest rate of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people, trailing only Barron, Jackson, Dodge and Menominee counties.

Up until last week, the decline of new COVID-19 cases coincided with the expansion of vaccine eligibility. While there were nearly as many cases as the previous three weeks combined, the county set a new record with 1,902 vaccinations distributed.

As of Monday, 32.8 percent of the county residents had received at least one dose of a vaccine — including 89 percent of county residents who are at least 65 years old. Nearly 6,400 — 21.5 percent — county residents had completed the series at the start of this week, including 72.6 percent of the county’s 65-and-older population.