MHD: 3 COVID-19 gating criteria hold in green status

Milwaukee City Hall

The Milwaukee Health Department (MHD) released on Friday, Feb. 26 an update on the public health and safety order "Moving Milwaukee Forward" related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Order 4.4 features five total criteria: cases, testing, care, safety (PPE) and tracing. Each gating criteria can be assigned a status of GREEN, YELLOW or RED -- red being the most severe. 

Over the past week, the Milwaukee Health Department did not report any gating criteria changes but did report a decline in COVID-19 positivity -- which remained in the GREEN.

MHD reported an average of 3.4% positive based on an average of 1,962 tests per day. That is down from 3.9% positive based on an average of 1,975 tests per day the previous week. It is the 12th consecutive MHD report to show declining positivity, having reached as high as 19.1% in early November.

The care and cases criteria remained GREEN, while the other safety and tracing criteria remained in the YELLOW.

"We have reached an important stage in the COVID-19 pandemic where several vaccines are now approved and more people are receiving vaccinations," said Marlaina Jackson, the city's interim health commissioner. "Those of us in the public health field share a sense of optimism while continuing to be wary of a possible reversal of progress."

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MHD will continue to monitor the situation and determine if additional protective measures are necessary to reduce the spread of COVID-19.   

The City of Milwaukee's key indicators for Moving Milwaukee Forward Safely have been updated as they are every Thursday and are available online at milwaukee.gov/coronavirus.

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