La Crosse adds 16 COVID cases after “data cleaning” effort; 14.2% of pop. inoculated

“Data cleaning,” that’s the explanation from the state on a drop in COVID-19 cases yesterday.

Cases in La Crosse County dropped by 44 on Wednesday as a result of that effort, and rose again by 16 Thursday.

“Due to ongoing data cleaning efforts combined with a lower burden of confirmed cases, disease burden may appear artificially lower in some counties where negative daily counts are reported but trajectory should not be impacted,” The Wisconsin Department of Health Services stated. “Data cleaning efforts are ongoing and have been ongoing since the start of the pandemic. They’re just becoming more noticeable as the burden of confirmed cases is decreasing (negative counts are generated when the cumulative confirmed cases for one day are lower than the prior day) and antigen testing is increasing (probable cases). A majority of changes are impacted by confirmed cases being reclassified as probable.”

As for vaccinations, La Crosse is up to 14.2 percent (16,777 people) fully inoculated and 22.3 percent (27,523) having gotten the first shot.

Statewide, Wisconsin is up to 11.1 percent (647,108) inoculated and 19.7 percent (1,149,800) having gotten the first shot. Minnesota is at 11.4 percent and Iowa has 11.0 percent of the population inoculated.