County COVID case rate remains high

Trempealeau County had more than 100 new COVID-19 cases again last week, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.

With 123 new cases, last week marked the ninth consecutive week in which there have been more than 100 new cases. In that time, 22 county residents have died, pushing the death total to 24. While the total number of new cases was 11 fewer than two weeks ago, the rate in which people tested positive grew by nearly eight percent to 44 percent.

The most new cases were reported in the Galesville area as the DHS showed 18 new cases amongst people with a 54630 zip code. The Arcadia and Whitehall areas both had 16 new cases while Eleva had 14, Trempealeau and Osseo had 11, Strum had 10, Ettrick and Independence had nine and Blair had five.

The virus continues to be spreading amongst the county’s older population. Data released by the Trempealeau County Health Department showed seven new cases amongst county residents 80 years old or older and 38 new cases for people 60 or older.

The good news for area residents is that a vaccine is becoming available. On Monday of this week both Mayo Clinic and Gundersen Health Systems in La Crosse reported they had received their first shipments of the vaccination to be delivered to frontline health workers.

“The arrival of this highly effective and safe vaccine is an important and welcomed turning point in the COVID-19 pandemic,” says Paul Mueller, M.D., regional vice president. “Vaccination, coupled with ongoing social distancing, masking and hand hygiene, will prevent disease and death due to the virus and bring an end to the pandemic, which has adversely affected millions of people nation- and world-wide.”

The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was authorized for emergency use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Dec. 11. On Dec. 18, the FDA authorized the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use in individuals 18 years of age and older to prevent COVID 19 and the first shipment is expected to arrive in Wisconsin soon, according to the DHS.

County health director Barb Barczak has previously said that the county would be unable to house the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, as it needs to be stored at a temperature that is beyond the health department’s capabilities.

The county health department does not yet have information regarding when the vaccine may be available to the public.