MILWAUKEE – The Milwaukee Health Department (MHD) released on Friday, Dec. 11 an update on Phase 4.3 of the public health and safety order “Moving Milwaukee Forward” related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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.
Three of five criteria remained in the YELLOW; the other two remained RED. However, the city did see a slight drop in COVID-19 positivity.
According to the MHD, the city saw an average of 13.3% positive based on an average of 3,456 tests per day. The previous week, the city was at 14.6% with an average of 2,680 tests per day.
“We are seeing fewer people tested for COVID-19 in recent days, but disease presence, as indicated by the percentage of positive test results, remains high.” Acting Health Commissioner Marlaina Jackson said. “We encourage people to get tested, when appropriate, and ask people to be particularly cautious during this holiday season.”
The slope of linear regression for cases was reported at 0.03; the health department reported that that is not a statistically significant trend. MHD said it is seeing statistically significant trends and remains in the RED for care and testing.
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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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