New VOCID-19 guidance issued for Wisconsin schools, people

With more positive coronavirus cases in Wisconsin linked to parties and other gatherings, state health officials on Wednesday released a new tool that people can use to measure risk levels of different activities.

Positive COVID-19 cases tied to mass gatherings grew from 7% of cases in May to 21% in June and 20% in July, the state Department of Health Services said. Overall, nearly 67,500 people have tested positive in Wisconsin with 1,060 deaths.

That death count is the 28th highest in the country overall and the 37th highest per capita at 18 deaths per 100,000 people. Over the past two weeks, the rolling average number of daily new cases has decreased by 209, a decrease of 25%. There were 174 new cases per 100,000 people in Wisconsin over the past two weeks, which ranks 24th in the country for new cases per capita.

The tool unveiled Wednesday allows people to answer a series of questions to determine the risk of certain behaviors, like who will be gathering, where will people be getting together and how widespread is COVID-19 in the area.

The state health department also released guidelines for school districts to follow in preventing, investigation and controlling COVID-19 outbreaks. The guidelines include instructions for school staff in identifying cases and close contacts among students as well as best practices for isolation and quarantine of infected students and staff.