County says 72% of staff answered to vaccine mandate
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley said 72% of Milwaukee County employees responded to the county’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate by either showing proof of vaccination or proper documentation for an exemption.
Crowley issued an administrative order to all county staff on Sept. 2 informing them they had until Oct. 1 to provide documentation.
At Tuesday’s COVID-19 briefing, Crowley said of the approximately 4,060 employees that work for the county, a little more than 1,000 employees have not provided documentation.
Unvaccinated employees will be required to wear masks in certain settings. In addition, unvaccinated employees working at the House of Correction, the county jail, or at the youth detention center will be subject to COVID-19 testing bi-weekly.
“We’re going to continue to work with each department individually to dig further into the data to ensure the information is being tracked accurately and this will take some time and so we’ll continue to provide more updates, as we can, as information is available,” said Crowley.
At the state level, the Department of Health Services reported 39 COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday — the highest oneday count since January 25.
‘A busy week for the FDA’
“This will be a busy week for the FDA and we may see substantial changes coming to booster recommendations,” said Ben Weston, chief health policy advisor for Milwaukee County.
The Food and Drug Administration advisory panel will consider booster shots for the Moderna and Johnson and Johnson vaccines this week.
“Moderna has submitted evidence they believe supports the need for a lower dosed booster in those 18 and older for their vaccine, citing diminished effectiveness against the delta strain,” said Weston.
Moderna is seeking authorization for a 50-microgram booster dose, half the strength of the original vaccine given in two shots. The FDA will decide on its use Thursday but reports Tuesday indicated the Moderna booster may face obstacles as the effectiveness of the original doses remains strong.
On Friday, the FDA advisory panel will review a request for an additional shot of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Findings show the second dose seems to improve immune response and protection from COVID-19, said Weston.
Latest COVID-19 numbers
New cases reported: 2,810 New deaths reported: 39
Number hospitalized: 1,170 (intensive care: 310); up 141 patients from a month ago
Seven-day average of daily cases: 2,403 (up 889 cases from one month ago)
Seven-day average of daily deaths: 15 (up two deaths from one month ago)
Seven-day average positivity rate — as a share of all tests given: 8.7%
Total cases since the start of pandemic: 756,855
Total deaths: 8,194
Latest vaccine numbers
Total doses administered:
6,425,984
Daily doses administered: 2,864 Seven-day average of daily doses: 4,836
Residents who have received one dose: 3,327,906 (57.2% of the population)
Residents who are fully vaccinated: 3,167,691 (54.4% of the population)
Adults who have received one dose: 3,111,139 (68.3% of the 18+ population)
Adults who are fully vaccinated: 2,967,580 (65.1% of the 18+ population)
Residents ages 12 to 15 with at least one dose: 139,693 (47.1% of age group)
Residents ages 16 to 17 with at least one dose: 77,015 (52.2% of age group)
Residents ages 18 to 24 with at least one dose: 285,039 (52.2% of age group)
Residents ages 25 to 34 with at least one dose: 419,903 (56.7% of age group)
Residents ages 35 to 44 with at least one dose: 457,605 (64.2% of age group)
Residents ages 45 to 54 with at least one dose: 466,817 (65.3% of age group)
Residents ages 55 to 64 with at least one dose: 608,153 (73.9% of age group)
Residents 65 and older with at least one dose: 873,622 (85.9% of age group)
Variant cases of concern
DHS, the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene and other laboratory partners regularly perform whole genome sequencing on a portion of positive tests. The numbers below do not represent the total number of variant cases.
Cases of the alpha (B.1.1.7) variant: 3,735
Cases of the beta (B.1.351) variant: 77
Cases of the delta (B.1.617.2) variant: 8,358 (100% of the tests sequenced in the week of Sept. 27)
Cases of the gamma (P.1) variant:
336