Kewaunee County COVID-19 positive tests continue falling, but precautions are still urged
KEWAUNEE – The percentage of positive tests for the COVID-19 virus continues to decline in Kewaunee County, but residents are still cautioned to protect themselves as businesses and public locations continue to reopen across the county.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the Kewaunee County Public Health Department reported 33 positives since testing for the virus began, up two from the 31 reported May 19. A total of 711 tests have come back negative with 53 results pending. Three of the cases are active, and none are currently hospitalized. One death from COVID-19 complications happened April 13.
The week before, May 12 to 19, also saw two positive test reports.
The county received 199 results between May 19 and 26, the most in a week so far, which means 1% of those tests came back positive. That continues a trend of a decreasing percentage of positive tests, from 1.5% between May 12 and 19 (two positives in 128 tests) and 3.6% the week before that.
The overall percentage of positives since testing began correspondingly fell to 4.4%, compared to 5.7% as of May 19 and 7.5% on May 12. The statewide cumulative average of positive tests also continued to decrease, to 7.3% from 8% on May 19 and 8.6% a week before then.
While the number and rate of positive tests has been falling, health officials are concerned those numbers will turn around and increase, perhaps dramatically, in future weeks as people go back out into public to visit and shop at businesses and places that were shut down for about two months by state and local safer-at-home orders before reopening within the past couple weeks.
Cindy Kinnard, Kewaunee County Public Health Department director, said people and business owners should continue to follow guidelines the county issued May 14 to protect themselves and others from the COVID-19 virus and help prevent a potential surge. The recommendations can be seen under the "Kewaunee County Reopening Guidelines" tab on the county website, www.kewauneeco.org.
"We still encourage social distancing, we still encourage wearing masks in public, we still encourage people to take precautions," Kinnard said.
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Contact Christopher Clough at 920-741-7952, 920-562-8900 or [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Kewaunee County COVID-19 positive tests continue falling, but precautions are still urged