Counties across WI and MN experiencing high community levels of COVID-19 – WEAU

LA CROSSE, Wis. (WEAU) – After a a decline over the last few months, some counties across western Wisconsin and southeast Minnesota are starting to see an uptick in COVID-19 cases.

La Crosse County is one of seven Wisconsin counties where the CDC is reporting a high community level of COVID.

383 new cases have been reported over the last seven days, which represents a 24% increase from the week prior.

“I think we expected a little bit of an increase just coming out of a long winter where people were a little bit more closed up, and now they’re having graduations and celebrations,” County Health Officer Audra Martine said.

Vernon, Monroe, Rusk, Barron, Kenosha, and Racine counties are the other areas which are experiencing a similar rise in COVID cases.

In Minnesota, nine different counties are at a high community level, with the majority of them in the southeast part of the state.

Winona County is among the group reporting an increased COVID spread, which members of the county health department are attributing to an Omicron subvariant.

“We’ve kind of been watching it over in Europe, and then into the northeast and taking over New York,” Winona County COVID-19 Campaign Coordinator Valerie Williams explained. “Now, we’re kind of getting it moving into Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.”

While the latest strain of the coronavirus is highly contagious, health officials say it doesn’t cause severe disease.

Gundersen Health System Infection Preventionist Megan Meller thinks the recent rise of COVID cases reflects a trend which may continue for the foreseeable future.

“With COVID-19, it’s here to stay, and there will be times where we see an increase in cases, and there will be times where we see lulls,” Meller said. “I think it’s going to take us a couple years to really kind of pin down the characteristics of this virus, but it’s important for us to know now that it’s here to stay, and how do we learn to live with it.”

As cases go back on the upswing, health departments continue to recommend getting the vaccine to prevent COVID’s further spread.

“There is a community that is still really scared of this disease, and it’s a large population of people who are immunocompromised or at high risk,” Williams expressed.

“We hope that people don’t forget that COVID is still here, and we need to continue keeping, especially those who are most vulnerable, safe,” Martine added.

As of Monday, 65% of the La Crosse County population has been fully vaccinated, and Winona County stands at 65%.

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