One inmate at SCI has reportedly died from virus

Responding to the rising case numbers in Chippewa County, Cadott Community Schools went all virtual as of November 30 through Winter Break, while Thorp recently switched to Plan B instruction, though numbers for coronavirus in the district are not prominently displayed or easy to find on the district website. For the present at least, Stanley-Boyd Schools have avoided the pattern of school closings, which superintendent Jeff Koenig said at a recent school board meeting was due in part to being “overcautious” on the district’s part in terms of the novel coronavirus.

But while COVID numbers are not prominent or easy to find on the Thorp website, 11 people in and near the census tract of which Thorp is a part have died from COVID. per the COVID

FROM PAGE 1 State of Wisconsin Health Department website. Within Clark County more broadly, the Highway 29 corridor to Abbotsford is a hotspot. For nearby institutions of a different sort, the Wisconsin Department of Corrections (DOC) has instituted systemwide testing of inmates, while an EMS call received by Chippewa County on November 23 from the Stanley Prison’s address of 100 Corrections Drive blacksout unspecified “complications” being experienced by an elderly gentleman as posted in the online media log at the county sheriff’s office website. While not confirmed as such, the blacked-out area is exactly five spaces wide, or just the right amount of room needed to contain the word ‘covid.’ At the same time, the Wisconsin DOC website at doc.wi.gov registered a pandemic-long total of 91 confirmed cases of COVID-19 among prison staff workers, while among inmates 344 at the local Stanley Prison had tested positive over the length of the pandemic thus far. Of cases among the inmate population, 18 were actively positive as of November 30, while numbers were unclear for active staff cases versus those recovered, although the Wisconsin DOC site lists 219 actively positive staff members statewide. Over the length of the pandemic a total of 1,816 staff have tested positive, including the 219 actively so. Reportedly one inmate has died from COVID at the Stanley Prison.

Shifting from lock-up to the hospital bed picture, just 15 percent of hospital beds were immediately available statewide, with over 88 percent of beds in use, including 87 percent of ICU beds as of November 30. COVID-19 testing, meanwhile, is listed on the state site as being available at Our Lady of Victory Hospital – Urgent Care and through the Ascension Medical Group at 704 Clark Street in Thorp, with local test sites including Prevea Health Center in Chippewa Falls (by appointment), along with a drive up and walk-thru event held December 1 at the Northern Wisconsin State Fair grounds at 225 Edwards Street, also located in Chippewa Falls.

An ongoing drive-up testing facility, meanwhile, is set to go live as of December 7, being located at 6697 US 12 West in Eau Claire Posted hours for the soon-coming drive-up test site are 11:00a.m. to 7:00p.m. Monday through Friday, and from 9:00a.m. to 5:00p.m. on Saturdays. In Eau Claire at present, ongoing community testing is being done at Memorial High School, the UW-Eau Claire Davies Center, and Sacred Heart Hospital on Clairemont Avenue by appointment.

For mostly old-age healthcare facilities with active public health investigations, meanwhile, Chippewa County lists Chippewa Manor and Rehab, Dove Bloomer, Dove Healthcare at the Wissota Health and Regional Vent Center, Meadowbrook at Bloomer, and the Wisconsin Veteran’s Home at Chippewa Falls. For Clark County, the listed facilities with ongoing investigations include Oakbrook Health and Rehabilitation, Clark County Rehabilitation and Living Center, Neillsville Care and Rehabilitation, and the Colonial Center Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation.

For Eau Claire meanwhile, the places under investigation for COVID spread are Augusta Health and Rehabilitation, Dove Healthcare South and Dove Healthcare West, Grace Lutheran Communities at Prairie Pointe Rehab Suites and River Pines Long-Term Concierge Care, and Oakwood Health Services. For Taylor County to the northeast, public health investigations related to COVID-19 are taking place at Aspirus Care and Rehab in Medford and Rib Lake Health Services.

Finally in terms of the ongoing holiday season and shopping, there are certain places in the Chippewa Valley that one may just want to avoid, if the data at the Wisconsin Department of Health website is taken into account. With cases catalogued according to census tract data, the hotspots range from a death rate of 1.06 percent (six of 485 cases) squeezed between highway 27 and the Chippewa River in the countryside, to 4.38 percent in census tract 102 of Chippewa County, at and around the intersection of 53 with 29. The area in question has hosted 23 of 51 deaths within Chippewa County, while census tract 4 in Eau Claire County, in and around the City of Altoona has registered 18 deaths out of 57 total county wide in Eau Claire County.

Clark County residents, meanwhile, will want to stay away from the Highway 29 corridor generally, together with those areas just to the south and north of it, as the Thorp area was tied with the Abbotsford census tract for 11 COVID deaths each as of Monday November 30, while the Owen-Withee area registered eight total deaths from COVID-19 on the Department of Health map at dhs.wisconsin.gov at the same interval. For Taylor County, the City of Medford had a death rate of 2.42 percent from COVID as of November 30 or five of the 207 confirmed cases.