BELOIT—As COVID-19 cases crop up steadily in Rock County, more college and university students have been vaccinated.
Students at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater have reported a 70% COVID-19 vaccination rate as of Sept. 24, reaching the milestone five weeks ahead of the recently extended UW System deadline of Oct. 31.
Vaccinated UW-Whitewater students are now eligible for the UW System drawing of 70 scholarships valued at $7,000 each that will take place later in the fall. UW-Whitewater students who have not yet been vaccinated or reported their vaccination can still be eligible for the scholarship drawing, as long as they complete the vaccination series and report their record by Oct. 31. The university also received support from alumni and donors to fund weekly $500 drawings, totaling an additional $20,000 in vaccine incentives.
Employees at UW-Whitewater, including faculty and staff, report a 91% vaccination rate. All of these figures are based on vaccination records submitted by students, faculty and staff to UW-Whitewater and verified by staff, according to a press release from UW-Whitewater.
As of Oct. 1, the Beloit College campus, including students and staff, was at a 94% vaccination rate, according to information from Interim Chief Communications Officer Elizabeth Conslik.
The Daily News had not heard back from Rock Valley College regarding vaccination rates as of press time, and the team at Blackhawk Technical College were still compiling the numbers, according to a Monday email.
Beloit Area Community Health Center is hosting a community COVID-19 vaccination site at the Rotary River Center, 1160 Riverside Drive, in Riverside Park, on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. People can call 608-361-0311 to schedule an appointment. Walk-ins are welcome. People can receive a Blender Cafe gift card when they get vaccinated.
Beloit reported 110 new cases of COVID-19 from Sept. 27 to Oct. 4; Janesville, 122; Clinton, 9; Edgerton, 14; Evansville, 27; Milton, 24; and the rest of the county, 12.
On Monday, Rock County reported 20 new COVID-19 cases and no death. To date, a total of 18,932 cases and 200 deaths have been recorded since the pandemic began in the spring.
There were 17,895 people in Rock County who recovered from COVID-19 and 837 active cases. There were 12 people hospitalized in the county as of Sept. 30.
The case rate is 215 cases per 100,000 people in Rock County.
In Rock County, 63.3% of eligible people received both doses of the vaccine.
As of Monday, the average new cases per day in Wisconsin for the past seven days has been 2,508. The seven-day average of deaths per day in the state has been 17, and the seven day average state positivity rate was 8.5%.
As of Sept. 28, the latest data available, there were 1,096 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Wisconsin, with 13.1% of them on ventilators.
There are 54% of the total population of Wisconsin residents that have completed the vaccine series, or 3,141,401 people.
As of Monday, Winnebago County’s positivity rate was 4.3%, which is increasing as well as its case rate of 190 per 100,000 people which is increasing but lower than that of Rock County. There is 46.1% of the county that is fully vaccinated. The average age of someone with COVID-19 in the county is 36.2, which is going up.
On Oct. 1, the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) reported 18,735 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 in Illinois, including 236 additional deaths since reporting last Friday, Sept. 24.
More than 81% of Illinois adults have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose and more than 64% of Illinois adults are fully vaccinated, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Of Illinois’ total population, almost 68% has received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose and 53% of Illinois’ total population is fully vaccinated.
The preliminary seven-day statewide test positivity from Sept. 24-30 is 2.8% in Illinois.
