Fond du Lac County passes 150 COVID-19-related deaths since pandemic began

FOND DU LAC – The Fond du Lac County Health Department reported 384 new positive COVID-19 tests since last Friday, according to its Community Impact Dashboard.

As of Friday, the county's total positive case count since the pandemic began in March 2020 was up to 17,487 — an increase from 17,103 the previous Friday — and active cases are at 641 in the county, with 17 of those currently hospitalized.

To date, 16,694 people have been released from isolation measures, and the department has recorded 208,297 negative tests, an increase of 3,859 since the week before.

Four additional COVID-19-related deaths from September were reported: a 27-year-old woman, 28-year-old man and 50-year-old man from Fond du Lac, as well as a 71-year-old Brandon man.

The total number of virus-related deaths in the county is 152.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ranks the county's transmission status as high.

The Safe Restart metrics report, updated on Mondays, shows the number of cases and hospitals' ability to care for patients without going into crisis standards in the yellow "proceed with caution" status. The criteria looking at contact tracing is still in the red "of concern" status.

The criteria looking at testing and personal protective equipment availability are in the green "excellent" status.

Fond du Lac County Health Officer Kim Mueller and SSM Health St. Agnes Hospital President Katherine Vergos will provide COVID-19 updates on virus developments and other information via Zoom starting at 3:30 p.m. Monday, with a chance for audience questions.

A link will be available on the Fond du Lac County Health Department and SSM Health Greater Fond du Lac Facebook pages.

Participants can ask questions through the Q&A function on Zoom or by emailing Jayce.Commo@ssmhealth.com ahead of time.

Future sessions will take place on Nov. 29, Dec. 13 and Jan. 10.

The latest vaccine, testing information

State data on vaccine distribution was last updated Nov. 5, and the delay since then has been due to errors in data reporting that day, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services Facebook page.

The department anticipated updating the numbers Friday afternoon.

SSM Health Greater Fond du Lac will offer the Pfizer vaccine to pediatric patients ages 5 to 11 by appointment at three locations in the county: Fond du Lac Regional Clinic Pediatrics, 420 E. Division St., Fond du Lac; Fond du Lac Regional Clinic Pediatrics, 835 Parkside St., Ripon; and Fond du Lac Regional Clinic Family Medicine, 608 W. Brown St., Waupun.

There will also be a pediatric vaccination clinic Nov. 20 at the Fond du Lac location.

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Call 920-926-8400 to make an appointment for any of the locations or to set up a time for the clinic.

Free, weekly mobile testing is available in Fond du Lac for county residents age 2 and older.

A mobile unit from Accelerated Clinical Laboratories will offer tests from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Mondays and Thursdays at the Fond du Lac County Fairgrounds, 520 Fond du Lac Ave. It will no longer provide tests in Rosendale.

The unit offers PCR confirmatory tests, which will give results in one to two days. Symptoms are not a requirement for the mobile testing, and appointments, insurance or identification are not necessary. 

There will be additional testing days from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Nov. 13 and Dec. 18.

Additionally, Agnesian HealthCare is testing symptomatic community members. Anyone with even minor symptoms is encouraged to call 920-926-8400 for testing information.

More information on testing and vaccines is available at fdlco.wi.gov.

Contact Daphne Lemke at dlemke@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @daphlemke.