Division of Public Health Information Update

DHS Updates to COVID-19 Data Webpages

This message is being sent to local public health officers, Tribal health directors, and key DPH staff. 

Today the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) will begin making updates to its COVID-19 data webpages as part of the continued effort to provide public health partners, communities, and others with up-to-date information about COVID-19.  

These changes include the removal of several data dashboards, including percent positive and case counts, which no longer fully reflect community transmission due to the widespread use of at-home tests. Hospital metrics and wastewater will continue to be monitored and reported on the DHS website, as they remain strong indicators of COVID-19 activity and severity in communities. DHS is also removing the COVID-19 community levels, which are no longer reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). We are now using COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 population to help guide community and individual decisions related to risk and prevention behaviors. These data help us track local COVID-19 activity, like the CDC Community Levels did. 

Detailed COVID-19 data, including data by county, municipality, zip code and more, will remain available for download from the DHS Open GIS Data portal, and any existing connections to this data will not be affected by these changes.  

Additional information can be found on the Frequently Asked Questions page. 

Please do not reply directly to this email message. If you have a question, please email DHS DPHOPSCOMM.