1. Public Health
  2. Coronavirus
  3. Data

Data

person sitting at laptopUpdated 4/4/2020 at 8:00am
Our team is constantly evaluating our data to inform our decision making.

Launch Data Dashboard

Data Snapshot

Each week we plan to share a data snapshot that highlights a few key data points from the week:

Data Visualizations

 

Donut chart with 55% highlighted. Caption says: Just over half of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 are female. A possible explanation is health care workers tend to be female and are currently high priority for being tested. Also, studies show that women are more likely to seek health care.


Donut chart with 25% highlighted. Caption says, "Community spread is happening in Dane County. About a quarter of people with positive tests in Dane County have no known exposure to someone with a positive test, no travel history, and no healthcare exposure."
 

Graphic that shows cases with many additional cases connected with them before interventions were in place. After interventions were in place, there are cases with many fewer contacts. Caption reads: Social distancing measures are working. As time goes on, our contact investigations are showing that people who have tested positive for the virus have fewer high risk contacts outside the home."
 

Frequently Asked Questions

  • How many people have recovered?

    • This is a hard number to calculate accurately, as people may feel completely well but still be infectious. Additionally, we know there are lots more positive cases out there that are not getting tested. If we remove recovered people from the total number of confirmed cases, we still don’t have a full picture of cases in Dane County. We’ve been seeing increases in cases every single day for over two weeks, many with no known source, so we can assume the virus is becoming more widespread in our community.

  • Do these numbers reflect everyone who has COVID-19 in Dane County?

    • No. Healthcare systems evaluate their staffing, testing supplies, and current symptoms of an individual and their risk factors (e.g., age, underlying health conditions) to prioritize who is tested. Many people have mild symptoms and coming to a clinic or hospital to be tested could put you or others at increased risk. As a result, there are people who have COVID-19 who are not tested. Read more testing FAQs 

  • Is there a version for mobile devices?

  • Why don't you release information at the neighborhood or town level? 

    • We currently share information at the county level because more specific data could identify people in some of our smallest communities. With community spread, you need to assume there are positive cases in every town because there probably are. Testing capability is so limited that many symptomatic people are being screened out and testing doesn't occur. We don't want people to have a false sense of security because there is or isn't a lab confirmed person in their town. No matter where you live, our recommendations are the same: stay home as much as possible.

  • How do you calculate the number of people tested?

    • We receive testing data from public and private laboratories via a statewide reporting system called the Wisconsin Electronic Disease Surveillance System. We only receive reports on lab tests done for Dane County residents. We had been including people in our data system with a classification of “suspect” or “probable” in our count of tests administered, when people with these designations never actually had a test to either rule them out or confirm them as a COVID-19 case.
    • Prior to 4:30pm on April 2, we included both probable and suspected cases in the number of people tested. From 4:30pm on April 2 forward, we will be excluding probable and suspected cases to more accurately reflect the number of tests with confirmed results. This change resulted in an exclusion of 108 reported tests that had previously been included. 

  • How many people are hospitalized for COVID-19 in Wisconsin?

    • Wisconsin Department of Health Services estimates hospitalizations for Wisconsin on their website. We would like to be able to share this information for Dane County, but it's not as simple as it sounds. Sometimes people are tested when they are hospitalized for something unrelated to COVID-19. Sometimes people are not hospitalized at first, but may get sicker and are hospitalized later. But we don't need real-time hospitalization rates to know that our hospitals need our help: everyone should be staying home as much as possible to keep COVID-19 from spreading.