Seventeen COVID-19 cases in county

As of July 8, there are 17 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Taylor County. According to Taylor County Health offi cer Patty Krug, ages of those infected range in age from 18 all the way up to 76, though she wouldn’t disclose the variation in severity of symptoms between young and old.

Taylor County received a “C” rating overall in precautions against COVID-19, averaged out between an “A” and an “F” grade. The county’s “A” rating is for having a greater than 94% reduction in average mobility compared to the national baseline, but that is more than likely due to Taylor County’s low population compared to the rest of America more so than efforts to halt the spread of the virus.

Currently, the county sits at an “F” rating for having less than a 25% reduction in average mobility. That grade has fallen significantly since April, when Taylor County received a “B” for reducing average mobility by 55% to 70%. As such, the number of cases has risen steadily since the beginning of June. Despite this, Taylor County still rates better than Wisconsin as a whole, as the state received an “F” overall.

Taylor County Health Department doesn’t track the efficiency of social distancing and PPEs in regards to slowing COVID-19 down, so there are no numbers to correlate the spread of the virus with public efforts to remain safe.

Wisconsin Department of Health Services has a COVID-19 tracker on their website that breaks down the rate at which cases are reported and the predicted rate of change, but Taylor County has insufficient data to properly form a trajectory of spread, although it is listed at a medium level of activity with no signifi cant change in cases.

The online database is updated every Wednesday at 2 p.m.

“You’re able to look at some of those areas, so it’s like, where are we at with our surrounding counties in reference to [COVID-19 spread,]” said Krug of the website tool. “That kind of explains where we are at for all of our cases... It’s got a lot of great information in there.”

On the bright side, Taylor County has two people who have completely recovered from the virus, with Krug defining recovery as “people who have been 30 days since their last symptom or since they’ve been diagnosed.”