County new COVID-19 case record broken again

The number of new COVID-19 cases in Trempealeau County remained high as a new record was set again last week.

From last Monday to this Monday, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services reported 111 new COVID-19 cases in Trempealeau County, breaking the previous record of 98 set four weeks ago. In the last five weeks, the county has had 453 new cases, bringing the total number of cases in the county to 990 more than Buffalo (253) and Jackson counties (464) combined.

The Trempealeau area had the most new cases last week with 20 more while Galesville saw an increase of 19, Blair, 16; Arcadia and Eleva/Strum, 13; Osseo, 12; Whitehall, eight and Independence, five. Over the past two weeks, Blair had had 37 new cases, while both Trempealeau and Arcadia have had 32.

The county health department saw a slight break last week Wednesday, reporting just two new cases, but there were 20 more cases on Thursday, 23 on Friday and 40 over the weekend.

The county health department reported late last week that there had been 16 new cases of school-aged residents (ages five-to-19). The only school to close was the Arcadia Elementary School, which is set to reopen on Friday of this week.

The health department also reported seven new cases amongst people over the age of 80, bringing the total of positive tests for that age group to 21 since the start of the pandemic in this area last April.

Most (56.4 percent) of the county residents who tested positive were described as having moderate symptoms while 30.2 percent had mild and 5.8 percent were severe, according to the health department. The department also reported that 7.6 percent of the people who tested positive did not show any symptoms. As of last Friday, the health department reported five people were hospitalized and two have died since the beginning of the pandemic.

The health department issued an advisory for those who were at Shari’s Bar in Whitehall on Oct. 18 between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. Anyone who was at that location is advised to consider themselves a medium risk exposure and avoid any non-essential activities for 14 days.

The county is set to have a community testing site in Independence on Friday this week. It will be the second of three planned community testing days at the Trempealeau County Health Care Center Annex, 23062 Whitehall Road, Independence. Testing will begin at 9 a.m. and run until 5 p.m. Another community testing day is planned for the same location and same times on Nov. 13.