Wisconsin DHS Discusses New COVID Guidance From CDC

Thursday, March 3rd, 2022 -- 8:07 AM

(Bob Hague, WRN) The CDC has released a new measure for determining COVID-19 community levels.

Dr, Ryan Westergaard with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services explains that now takes into account hospitalizations and hospital capacity in addition to infection numbers. “We should think about COVID-19 prevention in general . . . in a way that it doesn’t just effect our health, it effects our communities, and that it’s not in our interest . . . for out health care systems to be overwhelmed.”

Dr. Westergaard continued, “Hospital capacity is no longer strained to the degree that it ever was. That CDC has signaled we need to move toward individuals making decisions, and we need a framework about how to think about that.”

“There are health care regions that have less hospital capacity and a given number of cases is going to have a more pronounced effect on their health care capacity than an area where there’s more health care capacity.”
                    
Westergaard says the capacity of local health care systems is something people should consider, when deciding whether or not to keep wearing a mask in indoor settings.

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