Shawano County COVID cases continue to tick up
SHAWANO — Health officials are encouraging continued precautions against the spread of the coronavirus as confirmed cases in Shawano County continue to increase at a slow but steady rate.
Shawano County’s confirmed COVID-19 cases rose to 59 on Monday, with the county averaging at least one new case every day.
“We’re not really out of the woods,” said Vicki Dantoin, health officer for the Shawano-Menominee Counties Health Department. “We still have some stuff ahead of us.”
Shawano County’s ratio of positive cases to population works out to about 109.7 per 100,000.
“I would say that’s middle of the road,” Dantoin said. “We’re not on the low end. We’re not on the high end, but our cases are increasing. We’re still in a high-risk situation here.”
Dantoin said the public should continue taking steps necessary to stem the spread of COVID-19, including wearing masks, social distancing and avoiding large gatherings.
“I think we just need to keep staying the course here,” she said. “Keep doing the social distancing, avoiding those large gatherings, washing your hands, disinfecting highly-touched areas. A lot of those same guidelines still apply.”
Though COVID numbers are increasing, there has been some encouraging news.
One of two Shawano County nursing homes that had been hit with the coronavirus has been taken off the watchlist after no additional cases were reported over the past month.
Cases at the other nursing home continue to be monitored.
Neither of the nursing homes have been named. Another long-term care facility, not a nursing home, according to Dantoin, is also being monitored.
“They’re being pretty proactive about things,” Dantoin said. “They’re looking at their testing, making sure residents and staff can be tested, and working with us pretty tightly.”
She said the facilities are providing the health department with regular updates.
“We keep monitoring individuals that are positive and keeping them under close isolation,” she said. “The places are also kind of under lockdown, so basically no visitors. They’re screening staff as they come in and they’re doing all the right things to try to help protect their folks.”
The number of hospitalizations due to COVID-19 have also been increasing, even though some of those hospitalizations consisted of a short stay, according to Dantoin.
Shawano County had 10 hospitalizations as of Monday.
“We do have quite a few,” Dantoin said.
So far, there are no reported hot-spots in Shawano County or COVID cases that can be traced to any particular location or event, according to Dantoin.
The spread continues to primarily be through one-on-one contact.
“We’ve had multiple cases where there’s maybe more than one person at an address that has been positive,” Dantoin said. “We have a significant number of those situations, but there are others that aren’t tied to anything specific.”