As of 3 p.m. on Oct. 27, there are no new positive cases of COVID-19 among the UW-Eau Claire students tested. A total of 317 tests were given, resulting in a positivity rate of 0.0%.

According to the UW-Eau Claire COVID-19 dashboard, the total number of positive test cases now rests at 344 cases — 21 more positive cases than last week. 

The Rice Lake campus has had one new positive case of COVID-19, resulting in a cumulative total of four cases. The Marshfield campus remains at no positive cases so far. 

As of Monday, Oct. 26, the information from the Eau Claire City-County Health Department reports 32 new, positive, student-connected COVID-19 cases and one new faculty-connected case. 

The new cumulative total of positive, student-connected cases now rests at 547 — an increase of 36 cases from last week — and staff-connected cases now rest at 10 total cases, which is a single case increase from last week.

According to the Eau Claire County COVID-19 Information Hub, there have been 3,531 positive tests of COVID-19 in Eau Claire County out of 29,610 tests given as of 9 a.m. on Oct. 28. There have been 12 total deaths due to COVID-19 in Eau Claire County.

There are two establishments currently on the information hub that have potentially experienced exposure in the past few weeks. The first is Dooley’s Pub between 6-7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 15. The other potential exposure occurred at the same time and on the same date at Ray’s Place.

On the national scale, Wisconsin is currently the fourth-highest U.S. state in COVID-19 cases. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are currently 8,792,794 total cases of COVID-19 since Jan. 21 as of 1:20 p.m. on Oct. 28.

The state with the highest number of cases in the past week is Texas at 40,810 cases, followed by Illinois at 33,236. California is the third-highest state with 30,121 cases, and Wisconsin follows at 29,601 cases of COVID-19. 

The state with the lowest number of cases currently is Vermont with 157 cases. Additionally, four U.S. territories currently rest at zero cases: American Samoa, the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau and the Republic of Marshall Islands. 

According to the CDC, Wisconsin has had a total of 217,429 reported cases of COVID-19 and 1,895 deaths, with 243 deaths occurring in the past week. 

Wisconsin is the sixth-highest state regarding COVID-19 deaths in the past week. The state with the highest death count in the past seven days is Texas, followed by California, Florida, Illinois and Tennessee. 

Regarding progress on potential vaccines, The New York Times’ Coronavirus Vaccine Tracker reports there are now six vaccines approved for early or limited use, with 11 remaining in the large-scale efficacy tests.

Efficacy trials, also known as phase three testing, are when scientists give the vaccine — that is undergoing testing — to thousands of people while others receive a placebo. According to The Times, the next step is to see how many of the volunteers get infected.

Of the six vaccines approved for early use, none of them are from the U.S. Three of the approved vaccines are from Chinese companies, CanSinoBIO, Sinovac Biotech and the Wuhan Institute of Biological Research. 

Sinopharm also is involved with the production of a vaccine from the Beijing Institute of Biological Products. Additionally, another two approved vaccines come from Russian institutes known as the Gamaleya Research Institute and the Vector Institute. 

Spierings can be reached at [email protected].