As of 3 p.m. Oct. 12, there are 22 new positive cases of COVID-19 on the UW-Eau Claire campus. A total of 245 tests were given, with a positivity rate of 9.0%.

According to the UW-Eau Claire COVID-19 dashboard, the cumulative number of positive cases at the university rests at 282 cases.

The information from the Eau Claire City-County Health Department data puts the cumulative amount of new UW-Eau Claire student connected cases at 32. The cumulative amount of UW-Eau Claire connected positive student cases now rests at 472 cases.

Additionally, the number of new UW-Eau Claire staff connected cases rests at two, bringing the cumulative number up to eight cases.

The number of positive COVID-19 cases at other UW-Eau Claire campuses has not changed since last week. The Rice Lake campus remains at three cases and the Marshfield campus still has not had any reported positive cases.

Across the UW System, UW-Eau Claire had the highest amount of new cases on Monday, Oct. 12. According to the report for Oct. 12 on the UW System coronavirus dashboard, UW-Madison was just one case lower than UW-Eau Claire at 21 new positive cases. 

The third highest was UW-Milwaukee at 17 cases. Both UW-Parkside and UW-Superior had no new positive test results.

As of 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 13, the current number of deaths related to COVID-19 in Eau Claire county rests at nine total deaths. According to the Eau Claire County COVID-19 Information Hub, 2,454 tests have turned out positive, while 26,333 tests have come back negative. 

Concerning COVID-19 news across Wisconsin, Governor Tony Evers issued a new emergency order on Tuesday, Oct. 6 that limits the size of indoor public gatherings.

Emergency Order 3 states Wisconsin is now a COVID-19 hotspot at 17,641 new cases, only beaten by California and Texas for new cases in the past seven days, which are 6.8 times and 5 times the larger than the population of Wisconsin, respectively.

Emergency Order 3 is to be in effect from Oct. 8 to Nov. 6. Indoor gatherings are limited to no more than 25% of the capacity of a room or the building’s total capacity. This applies to all gatherings that are open to the public, with a few exceptions.

Some exceptions to Emergency Order 3 include child care settings, placements for children in out-of-home care, 4k-12 schools, institutions of higher education, health care and public health operations, human services operations, public infrastructure operations, places of religious worship and a few others. 

Despite the rising number of cases across Wisconsin, UW campuses in general seem to have their COVID-19 cases going down, according to Channel 3000.

Tommy Thompson, the UW System president, reportedly said to Channel 3000 this is due to the testing going on within UW campuses. Allegedly, the UW System is testing five times more often than the state of Wisconsin.

UW-Madison went from 161 cases in a 7-day combined average four weeks ago down to 17 cases, with other UW campuses seeing similar results. 

Spierings can be reached at [email protected].