Whether wave has peaked for kids unclear
MPS schools return to in-person instruction
Milwaukee Public Schools students returned to their school buildings Tuesday for the first time in nearly a month, following winter break and two weeks of virtual learning as staff and students recovered from widespread COVID-19 infections.
As teachers welcomed students back to classrooms, some data pointed to a possible decline in COVID-19 cases and a hope that the omicron variant has passed its peak for Milwaukee kids, but officials said it’s too early to tell.
“Our COVID trends are a bit of a puzzle at the moment,” said Dr. Ben Weston, chief health policy adviser with Milwaukee County.
While state case counts continue rising, that may be in part due to the delay in processing a backlog of cases.
County numbers, meanwhile, are showing more hopeful signs, with case counts in early January declining for all age groups except 5-9 years old. That may partially reflect a decline in testing, Weston said, though the percent of tests coming back positive increased.
Hospitalizations remain “critically high,” Weston said, and deaths are rising. When surges recede, case counts are generally the first to decline, followed by hospitalizations, then deaths, Weston said.
MPS’ own dashboard showed declining cases as of 3 p.m. Tuesday, though cases were still being added to the dashboard for the day.
At the end of winter break, MPS had a weekly case count more than double any other week this school year, with 741 staff members and 360 students testing positive the week of Jan. 3.
After school Tuesday, the district’s dashboard reported lower case numbers for the previous seven days, a total of about 530 students and staff, including about 156 cases from Tuesday.
MPS administrators have not provided the Journal Sentinel with results from three special testing sites for students and staff Thursday, and a spokesperson said those results may not be included in the dashboard.
Weston said it’s “hard to say” whether the peak has passed and reiterated the importance of masks and vaccinations for schools to stay open.
“I’m sure, in an environment like that, there will be some degree of spread ... there’s a lot of mitigation measures in place to decrease that spread,” Weston said.
Acting Mayor Cavalier Johnson also pointed to mitigation measures such as masking as a way to keep schools open. “I think the best place for kids to be is in school,” he said.
Johnson said he intended to sign a citywide mask mandate approved by the Common Council Tuesday — a measure the Milwaukee School Board and Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association had called for.
The district is maintaining a policy of monitoring COVID-19 numbers and, if 3% of a school population tests positive in a two-week period, moving that individual school to virtual learning for 10 days. MPS didn’t report any schools as being virtual Tuesday.
At Parkside School for the Arts Tuesday morning, Leidy Was said the timing worked out well for her family. They found out they had COVID-19 the same week MPS went virtual and they tested negative this weekend. She said she felt lucky to stay home with her kids, as she’s seen other families struggle to manage schedules.
“For us it’s worked out,” Was said. “I’m a stay-at-home mom, so we’re lucky with that part.”
It wasn’t as smooth for another parent at Parkside, Tavare Willis, who had to find childcare for his fourth grader. He echoed a common sentiment from parents throughout virtual learning: “It’s good he’s got grandparents; grandparents helped a lot.”
Still, Willis said his child didn’t stay as focused on schoolwork during virtual learning.
“He wanted to continue his vacation,” Willis joked.
Though virtual learning wasn’t ideal for his family, Willis said he trusted that leaders were making the right public health decisions for the greater community.
“I’ll do my part,” he said.
During virtual learning, MPS saw a record turnout at a vaccine clinic hosted by Escuela Fratney. The Milwaukee Health Department announced it would hold 22 more vaccine clinics at MPS schools.
In the City of Milwaukee as of Tuesday, about 10% of children ages 5-11 were fully vaccinated, along with 48% of Milwaukeeans ages 12-19.
On the state level, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services continues to be dealing with a system update which will elevate COVID-19 numbers.
Latest COVID-19 numbers
• New cases reported: 14,953
• New deaths reported, confirmed: 42
• New deaths reported, probable: 1 h Seven-day average of daily cases: 18,216 (up 14,876 cases from one month ago)
• Seven-day average of confirmed daily deaths: 10
• Seven-day average of new deaths reported within 30 days of death: 21
Latest vaccine numbers
(down five deaths from a month ago)
• Seven-day average positivity rate: 27.5% of all COVID-19 tests given
• Total cases since the start of pandemic: 1,226,097
• Total confirmed deaths: 10,582 h Total probable deaths: 1,173
• Total doses administered: 8,888,366
• Daily doses administered: 7,370 h Seven-day average of daily doses: 13,588
• Total booster doses administered: 1,789,545
• Daily booster doses administered: 4,216
• Seven-day average of daily booster doses: 8,765
• Residents who have received one dose: 3,668,013 (62.9% of population)
• Residents who are fully vaccinated: 3,429,974 (58.8% of population)
• Residents ages 5 to 11 with at least one dose: 115,437 (23.7% of group)
• Residents ages 12 to 17 with at least one dose: 260,767 (58.7% of group)
• Residents ages 18 to 24 with at least one dose: 315,251 (57.9% of group)
• Residents ages 25 to 34 with at least one dose: 461,353 (62.3% of group)
• Residents ages 35 to 44 with at least one dose: 490,355 (67.9% of group)
• Residents ages 45 to 54 with at least one dose: 493,486 (70.6% of group)
• Residents ages 55 to 64 with at least one dose: 634,556 (77.4% of group)
• Residents 65 and older with at least one dose: 896,790 (85.6% of group)
Variant case sequencing
State and private labs regularly do further tests on a portion of positive COVID-19 samples to find the prevalence of different variants of the virus. The numbers below are just a fraction of the total number of variant cases.
Omicron variant was identified in 100% of tests sequenced during the week starting Jan. 10.
“I’m sure, in an environment like that, there will be some degree of spread ... there’s a lot of mitigation measures in place to decrease that spread.” Dr. Ben Weston chief health policy adviser with Milwaukee County