WAUSAU, Wis. – Recent COVID-19 data from the state of Wisconsin and Aspirus Health continue to show an encouraging trend, Aspirus said in a Feb. 9, 2022, press release.

COVID-19 hospitalizations in the state are on a steady decline since mid-January 2021. There are 80 COVID-positive patients in Aspirus hospitals today – the fewest since Sept. 23, 2021. This also is a considerable decrease from January when Aspirus’ average COVID daily census was 125.

The number of COVID-19 ICU patients is also dropping. Today, Aspirus has 20 COVID-positive patients in the ICU and 10 on ventilators compared to a daily average in Jan. of 29 and 22, respectively.

“With these trends of decreased cases and hospitalizations, we are getting a little bit of a reprieve from this two-year-long pandemic,” said Jenny Redman-Schell, Aspirus Senior Vice President and President of the Aspirus Medical Group.

The Aspirus Reference Lab saw a 24 percent positivity rate in COVID-19 tests processed from Jan. 31 – Feb. 5, 2022. That rate is lower than Aspirus experienced during the peak of the delta variant surge in Nov. 2021, when positivity rate reached 28 percent.

These numbers align with COVID-19 positivity rates being reported by the Wisconsin of Department of Health Services. The state has seen a steady decrease in the percentage of total positive tests since early in Jan. 2022.

These positive trends are allowing Aspirus to resume procedures that had been postponed during the busiest weeks of the surge, when resources were redirected to the crucial efforts to care for COVID-19 patients.

“This is very important because we want to make sure that patients get the care that they need,” Redman-Schell said. “Even if you need a total hip or total knee replacement it’s very important because you could be living with pain or decreased mobility and you want to get that case completed and start on the road to rehab.”