WISCONSIN CORONAVIRUS: THE LATEST

WAUKESHA, Wis. — Even as new variants of COVID-19 continue to develop, including the recently discovered omicron subvariant XBB.1.5, some pharmacists said they have seen a decline in demand for COVID-19 vaccines.

Scott Hoff is a pharmacist at Moreland Plaza Pharmacy in Waukesha, Wis. Hoff said that when coronavirus vaccines first rolled out, demand was sky high.

The World Health Organization chief on Wednesday said a nearly 90% drop in recent COVID-19 deaths globally compared to nine months ago provides “cause for optimism,” but still urged vigilance against the pandemic as variants continue to crop up.

WISCONSIN — A recent study shows Wisconsin allocated more than half of its American Rescue Plan Act funds to the economy, which is more than any other state.

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Wisconsin spent around $1.1 billion of its funds on the economy, which is 55.8% of the total amount it received. Nebraska spent the second most on its economy, with a total of 37.8%.

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Employees of a Milwaukee-based health care provider who cited religious reasons for opting out of a mandated coronavirus vaccination are now required to receive a shot or reapply for an exemption.

The previous exemption has expired for impacted staff at Froedtert Health. The health care provider says the move is because of the availability of a protein-based vaccination called Novavax. Froedtert says the option eliminates the conflicts caused by mRNA-based vaccines, like Moderna or Pfizer, because it doesn’t use fetal cell lines for development.

WISCONSIN — The Wisconsin Department of Health Services said it wants people around the state to get boosted against COVID-19.

Updated COVID-19 boosters, called bivalent boosters, are available for people 12 years old and older. Wisconsin DHS said the boosters have started to come in and will be distributed to providers over the next several weeks.

MADISON, Wis. — Updated COVID-19 boosters from Pfizer and Moderna were approved by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and could be available soon.

The shots target the highly contagious BA.4 and BA.5 omicron subvariants but also contain a formula to protect against the original virus.

MILWAUKEE — As COVID-19 hospitalizations rise in Wisconsin, clinics continue to give free vaccines and testing in attempts to bring those numbers back down.

Twice a week, Northcott Neighborhood House in Milwaukee, teams up with Health Connections Inc. to offer a COVID-19 Vaccination Clinic.

MILWAUKEE — Days after confirming that President Joe Biden had tested negative for COVID-19 after recently contracting the virus, White House physicians this past weekend confirmed the president had again tested positive for it, prompting no shortage of interest into what have been dubbed “rebound” cases.

“Research is still being done to figure out why this is happening,” Dr. Dan Shirley, Medical Director of Infection Prevention at UW Health, said. “Most of these ‘rebound’ phenomena are found by testing or some mild symptoms that recur.”

MILWAUKEE — With the start of a new school year in Wisconsin just around the corner, school boards across the state are weighing what-if-any COVID-19 precautions to have in place.

Parents with young children statewide are dealing with a similar debate tied to whether or not to have their kids vaccinated against the virus.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden continues to “improve significantly” despite a lingering sore throat from his coronavirus infection, according to an update Sunday from his doctor.

“The president is responding to therapy as expected,” wrote Dr. Kevin O’Connor in his latest note. Biden has been taking Paxlovid, an antiviral drug that helps reduce the chance of severe illness.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, told Spectrum News on Friday that President Joe Biden is "doing fine" after his COVID-19 diagnosis.

“The good news is that [Biden is] in generally good health," Dr. Fauci told Spectrum News' Kevin Frey, mentioning he spoke with President Biden's physician Dr. Kevin O'Connor on Friday morning. "He's been vaccinated, he's been doubly boosted. And he's on an antiviral drug, Paxlovid, which clearly has a very positive impact in preventing people from progressing to severe disease.”

WISCONSIN — Even someone up-to-date on all their COVID-19 vaccinations and boosted against the virus could not only face an initial COVID-19 infection more easily these days, but research shows their chances of contracting the virus again in a matter of weeks is now much higher.

"That virus is just doing a good job of evolving," Dr. Jeff Pothof, the chief quality and safety officer for UW Health, said. "Omicron variants BA.4 and BA.5 are even more contagious than the previous omicron variants that we found, and they're easier to get reinfected with."

About 25 million children worldwide have missed out on routine immunizations against common diseases like diptheria, largely because the coronavirus pandemic disrupted regular health services or triggered misinformation about vaccines, according to the U.N.

MILWAUKEE — For more than 2 years, the world's worked to navigate COVID-19 and now the pandemic's thrown its latest curveball into the mix: the omicron BA.5 variant.

"We're all getting sick of hearing about variants but as we've seen, with each new variant they're increasingly transmissible and that's especially the case with the latest, which is BA.5," Dr. Ben Weston, Milwaukee County's chief health policy advisor, said. "[It's] perhaps the most transmissible virus we've ever seen, so even more transmissible than measles."

MILWAUKEE— Summerfest’s three-weekend format comes as a big plus to some, while others said they are hesitant to head to the grounds.

Carl Baehr said he likes to spend his days at Veterans Park birdwatching with his wife. And while that puts him near the festival, he said he doesn’t plan to go this year, even though he’s enjoyed Summerfest in the past.

MILWAUKEE — As vaccination rates have waned across Wisconsin and from coast-to-coast, and with more booster shots for more Americans on the horizon, the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) is now working to phase out usage of the term "fully vaccinated."

"What we've now discovered, and not surprisingly as with most vaccines, is that over time immunity wanes," said Dr. Jim Conway, the medical director of UW Health's immunization program. "We've really kind of pivoted into the more typical terminology which is being "up to date.'"

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A national meatpacking company with a facility in Green Bay has agreed to pay about $15,000 to settle allegations of unsafe practices during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic sickened and killed Wisconsin workers.

Wisconsin Public Radio reported Thursday that the U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration announced the settlement last week. The settlement applies to seven JBS Foods USA plants, including the Green Bay facility.

MILWAUKEE — With extra-contagious versions of omicron spreading, Wisconsin has seen a sizable uptick in its COVID-19 numbers in recent weeks.

The current surge isn’t nearly as high as our omicron peaks. And from antiviral pills to COVID-19 vaccines — which may see even more updates in the coming months — we have more tools than ever to fight the pandemic.

WISCONSIN — The Wisconsin Department of Health Services announced Monday they support the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s decision to recommend booster doses of the COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11.

DHS said kids in that age range should receive a booster dose five months after their Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine series.

MILWAUKEE — Following Pfizer's announcement Monday that 3 smaller doses of its COVID-19 vaccine help to protect infants and toddlers from the virus, health care systems in Wisconsin are gearing up to help vaccinate them if and when the FDA and CDC grant final approval.

"These results are very encouraging," Mo Kharbat, SSM Health's Vice President of Pharmacy Services, said. "[The infants'] immune system was boosted enough to reach efficacy levels over 80%, preventing symptomatic disease."

MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee County moved into the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's “high” level of COVID-19 community spread on Friday.

This led the Milwaukee Health Department to issue a mask advisory for the city of Milwaukee. They said "all individuals, regardless of vaccination status or past COVID-19 infection, should wear a mask at all times when indoors and in a public setting."

MILWAUKEE— While Wisconsin's COVID case counts remain far below what we saw during this past winter's omicron spike, Dr. Ben Weston, chief health policy advisor with Milwaukee County, said the curve has now climbed higher than our state's initial spike tied to the delta variant.

"It's important to keep in mind— that's a dramatic undercount, probably more so than ever before as we see more and more home tests going on [that] we just don't have a good eye on," Weston said. "We're over 15% positivity and that's higher than any point during the Delta surge last fall."

MILWAUKEE— As the United States marked 1,000,000 deaths tied to COVID-19 Thursday, public health experts in Wisconsin took time to both look back to the start of the pandemic while also looking ahead at what's still to come.

"It's a devastating number," Dr. Ben Weston, Milwaukee County's chief health policy advisor, said. "It's been devastating to so many families that have lost a loved one. You look just in Wisconsin— we've had 14,000 deaths. The impact that has had on families, on children and on communities is impossible to measure."

MILWAUKEE— While cases of COVID-19 continue to climb across Wisconsin, many doctors and researchers aren't predicting the curve to spike in the U.S. as it did back in January, but they do anticipate more gradual waves going forward.

"At the end of the day, we're in that transition between a full-blown pandemic and an endemic, and we'll probably have some ebbs and flows but it's hard to predict," Dr. David Ottenbaker, the vice president of ambulatory clinical programs for SSM Health, told Spectrum News 1 on Thursday. "We hope we're out of the full pandemic where we're not going to have these massive surges, but we're going to have ebbs and flows and it's kind of what we're seeing right now."

MILWAUKEE — Over the past two years, the scientific world has seen a steady flow of research updating what we know about the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, and how it affects humans.

Because the virus is so new, researchers are still grappling with many questions about its function. And because of the nature of the scientific process, no single study can completely answer those questions. Instead, new research is constantly challenging our understanding of the pandemic.

WISCONSIN— Moderna asked the Food and Drug Administration Thursday to approve their pediatric COVID-19 vaccine for the youngest of American; researchers and doctors, including at those UW Health, celebrated the news.

“The vaccine itself is a two-dose vaccine at this point, separated by 28 days,” said Dr. Bill Hartman, the principal investigator for UW-Health’s Moderna pediatric COVID-19 vaccine trial. “The results nationally that have been released by Moderna show that the safety profile has been excellent.”

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Two days after Divya Samu, 27, flew from Cincinnati back home to New York last week, she took a COVID-19 home rapid test because she was feeling ill and tested positive.

The next morning, she received an alert on her iPhone informing her she had been exposed on April 14 or 15, which gave her more confidence in her positive result.

MILWAUKEE — While cases of COVID-19 continue to climb again in Wisconsin, hospitalizations have remained low, and various health care experts say that's just one reason for optimism as the pandemic continues.

"What we're seeing right now is an uptick in positive cases of COVID, but thankfully we're not seeing an increase in the number of hospitalizations and ER visits," Mo Kharbat, SSM Health's Vice President of Pharmacy Services, said. "While there are more infections out there, they're not severe enough to need hospital stays or advanced medical care."

BROOKFIELD, Wis.— The latest increase in COVID-19 cases put testing on top of more people’s minds, all while keeping local labs busy.

Molly Gena took herself and her two kids to Summit Clinical Laboratories testing site in Brookfield to get tested.

MILWAUKEE — The last few days have been hard for Porsha Garrett.

“Very chaotic," Garrett said. "I really thought it was ending.”

MADISON, Wis. — Madison Metropolitan School District extended its mask mandate until the first week of May.

MMSD said anyone who enters a school building will be required to mask up until then. Officials said medical consultants told them extending the mandate “was in the best interest of its students and staff.”

MILWAUKEE — For a while, the COVID-19 trends were clear: Wisconsin saw a steep spike as new variants showed up, and a just-as-steep drop as the surge lost steam.

Now, the direction of the pandemic has gotten a little fuzzier.

OSCEOLA, Wis. — Benjamin Krumenauer has long had a passion for local government.

Krumenauer said he grew up in municipal life, starting as an intern and working up to his current role as the village administrator for Osceola. The public sector is essential to people’s day-to-day lives, he said — from plowing roads to building parks.

MILWAUKEE — There’s been some drama in the omicron family.

BA.1 was the first sub-lineage of the omicron variant to make its mark, leading surges across the globe this past winter. But now, BA.2 — another version of omicron that’s kind of like a sister to BA.1 — is coming along to steal the spotlight.

BROOKFILED, Wis.— The Nova Linea Dance Company is getting ready to perform their upcoming show “The Great Pause.”

The performance is using dance as a vehicle to show what lessons people can learn from the pandemic.

MILWAUKEE— A new CDC study out this week on the mental well being of high school students across the country provided a troubling look at the toll the COVID-19 pandemic has had on teenagers, and showed that 20% had strongly considered suicide over the past 2 years.

"A lot of it makes sense when you look back at the past 2 years, there's been so much change that's happened," Dr. Amanda Heins, a licensed clinical psychologist with Rogers Behavioral Health said. "Having abrupt shifts in what school looks like, my day-to-day interactions with my peers, even witnessing how my parents or loved ones are coping with the ripple effects of COVID... It is harder for some of those kids to jump back into their [new] routine."

GREEN BAY, Wis. — The staff at Streu’s Pharmacy Bay Natural administered more than 10,000 COVID-19 shots since the vaccine's release.

They’re planning to give more following Tuesday's U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval, expanding who can get an additional booster.

MILWAUKEE— Milwaukee Public Schools, the state's largest school district, moved forward with a plan this week to essentially end their current mask mandate in mid-April, making the move going forward to mask-optional instead as cases of COVID-19 continue to fade statewide.

"We have been through a lot this year and for the last really three years, going through this pandemic and working through this pandemic," Dr. Keith Posley, superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools, told Spectrum News 1 on Friday. "We have been in constant communication and looking at the CDC guidelines, working with the Department of Health Services, the Milwaukee Health Department, the Council of Great City Schools and all our partners [looking] at what we can do and when is a great time to look at masks being made optional."

MILWAUKEE — The wait continues for Moderna to file for emergency use authorization of its pediatric COVID-19 vaccine, days after the pharmaceutical company released its Phase 2 and Phase 3 testing data.

“These kids were six months to six years old,” said Dr. Bill Hartman, the principal investigator for UW-Health’s Moderna pediatric COVID-19 vaccine trial. “This was a trial that looked at the efficacy and the safety of the Moderna vaccine in these young kids, the 18 million nationwide who still aren’t eligible for a vaccine.”

WISCONSIN— While health care providers across Wisconsin continue to deal with the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, doctors and nurses continue to encourage patients who may have let their routine health care and screenings to slide over the past two years to get back on track

"We really do want to encourage everyone to get back to having their health screenings and exams, including your routine physical with your primary care provider, and getting your laboratory work," Dr. Shaneli Fernando, a radiation oncologist at ThedaCare Regional Cancer Center, said. "Your primary care provider can really guide you to the specific screening studies that you could need based on your age, based on risk factors like family history. So, yes— even though there could be some fear in that 'Maybe we've put things off longer than we should have,' I really want to encourage everyone to return to routine health maintenance."

MILWAUKEE — Over the past two years, the scientific world has seen a steady flow of research updating what we know about the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, and how it affects humans.

Because the virus is so new, researchers are still grappling with many questions about its function. And because of the nature of the scientific process, no single study can completely answer those questions. Instead, new research is constantly challenging our understanding of the pandemic.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Health authorities and vaccine researchers are increasingly interested in the pursuit of a “universal” COVID-19 vaccine that is resistant to variants.

After the omicron wave demonstrated that the virus’s ability to mutate can jeopardize the efficacy of existing vaccines, U.S. health officials have acknowledged that creating more durable vaccines will be key to a successful long-term vaccine strategy.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes said Wednesday that he has tested positive for COVID-19 but not experiencing any symptoms.

Barnes, who said he was vaccinated, is also a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate.

MADISON, Wis. — When Herb Heneman makes decisions about his health, he’s not just thinking about himself.

Heneman, a 77-year-old retired professor, received a liver transplant through UW Health in 1991 that helped him create a new life. Since then, his gratitude for getting that second chance has guided everything he does.

MILWAUKEE — Over the course of the pandemic, Wisconsin’s kids are the ones who have seen the most cases.

According to Department of Health Services data, residents under 18 have gotten infected more often than any other age group in the state. And though children are generally at a lower risk for severe COVID-19 outcomes, they are uniquely vulnerable to one problem: Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, or MIS-C.

We first spoke with Cynthia, a COVID-19 long-hauler, last year. Read that story here.

MILWAUKEE — More than a year after her first COVID-19 infection, Cynthia was finally getting her long-haul symptoms under control.

MILWAUKEE — The delta variant put a damper on Wisconsin’s “new normal.” The omicron variant sent COVID-19 cases higher than they’d ever been — by a long shot.

But for the first time in a long time, Wisconsin’s pandemic numbers are heading in the right direction. Just as quickly as cases surged, they’ve fallen back down in recent weeks, bringing severe outcomes with them.

Nearly half of the 500 million free COVID-19 tests the Biden administration recently made available to the public still have not been claimed as virus cases plummet and people feel less urgency to test.

Wild demand swings have been a subplot in the pandemic, from vaccines to hand sanitizer, along with tests. On the first day of the White House test giveaway in January, COVIDtests.gov received over 45 million orders. Now officials say fewer than 100,000 orders a day are coming in for the packages of four free rapid tests per household, delivered by the U.S. Postal Service.

MILWAUKEE— As cases of COVID-19 continue to fall across Wisconsin, and as more schools and the UW System prepare to pull back on pandemic-related restrictions, doctors in Wisconsin said they're worried that too many people will think the threat from the virus is suddenly gone.

"There was a real flurry as the vaccines became available initially back in November, but it's really dropped off quite dramatically over the last couple weeks," Dr. Jim Conway, a pediatric infectious disease physician at UW Health Kids and a professor at UW Madison, said. "While things are getting better, this by no means means the kids are out of the woods on this. They are the most vulnerable."

MILWAUKEE— After extending the county-wide mask mandate across Dane County late in January, Public Health Madison Dane County Monday confirmed that it will let its current face covering order expire on March 1.

"Things are going in the right direction," Janel Heinrich, Director of Public Health Madison & Dane County. "We anticipate that [cases] will continue to decrease and that's good news, [and waiting until March 1] allows time for that decrease to continue, and time for folks and organizations who may want to develop their own policies to have those in place."

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Tommy Thompson, the 80-year-old former governor who has spent more than 50 years in public service, said in a sometimes emotional farewell address Friday that the University of Wisconsin System has emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic stronger than before he took over as interim president.

Thompson took the temporary job in the early months of the pandemic in July 2020 and held it until a permanent successor was named.

MILWAUKEE — Over the past two years, the scientific world has seen a steady flow of research updating what we know about the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, and how it affects humans.

Because the virus is so new, researchers are still grappling with many questions about its function. And because of the nature of the scientific process, no single study can completely answer those questions. Instead, new research is constantly challenging our understanding of the pandemic.

MILWAUKEE— COVID-19 cases are falling in Milwaukee County but transmission levels remain high.

At the weekly county COVID-19 briefing, Chief Health Policy Advisor Dr. Ben Weston said he thinks we are past the omicron peak.

MILWAUKEE— Less than two months after the FDA approved the first of two COVID-19 antiviral pills in the United States, initial fears about supply shortages haven't played out yet, at least not at one Wisconsin pharmacy.

"We've seen pretty low demand compared to what we were expecting," said Maren Rasmussen, a pharmacist with Neuhauser Pharmacy in Madison. "We've gotten in two shipments at our pharmacy in Madison and we still have supply from both of those shipments, actually... We see about 1-2 prescriptions a day for the COVID-19 pills."

CLEVELAND — A recent Cleveland Clinic survey is shedding light on the pandemic's effects on heart health.

The survey, which was completed by 1,000 U.S. participants in November, shows that 41% of Americans experienced some form of at least one heart-related issue since the pandemic began in March 2020.

MADISON, Wis.— While new daily COVID-19 cases continue to decline from the holiday peak, the recent discovery of omicron subvariant in Wisconsin could put trends into a flux.

State officials said as of Feb. 3, they have discovered less than five cases of the new sub variant BA.2 in Wisconsin.

MILWAUKEE — As Wisconsin's COVID-19 case curve continues to drop, public health experts are now tracking a new omicron subvariant which has shown up in Wisconsin dubbed BA.2.

"It's about 1.5 times more transmissible or contagious [than the original omicron variant]," Dr. Ben Weston, chief health policy officer with Milwaukee County and an associate professor with the Medical College of Wisconsin, said. "That's pretty impressive because omicron itself was pretty contagious, but then we have to think about the next category which is severity, and when we look at severity, the data is really early right now."

MILWAUKEE — Wisconsin researchers don’t have a crystal ball to see where the COVID-19 pandemic is heading. What they do have: Bottles and bottles of sewage.

For more than a year now, scientists in the Badger State have been tracking the SARS-CoV-2 virus through wastewater. That’s possible because infected people don’t just breathe the virus out through their airways — they also flush it down the toilet in their feces.

MILWAUKEE — It may seem hard to believe, but this week, Wisconsin will mark the start of a third year dealing with COVID-19, and only time will tell whether the pandemic is still a factor by the end of its third year.

"I don't think anyone back in January of 2020 would have predicted that two years later, we'd still be talking about this," said Dr. Jeff Pothof, Chief Quality Officer at UW Health. "And not just talking about this but you know, COVID's causing more problems for us now than it was in January of 2020 — I think we were thinking a year at the most and boy were we wrong."

MILWAUKEE — After many record-shattering weeks, the omicron surge in Wisconsin seems like it might finally be turning around.

The latest surge has shown that vaccines and boosters put up a fight against omicron’s worst effects. In Wisconsin, the burden of COVID-19 deaths is falling even more heavily on the unvaccinated.

MADISON, Wis.— Public Health Madison and Dane County announced Wednesday its face covering order will be extended through March 1, under Face Covering Emergency Order #7.

The emergency order goes into effect Feb. 1, as soon as the current emergency order expires.

MILWAUKEE — Wisconsin’s COVID-19 numbers have been in rough shape since the new year kicked off and the omicron variant took over.

Cases have soared to new heights. Hospitals have been stretched thin. And the youngest Wisconsinites have been hit hard with infections — sometimes getting really sick.

MILWAUKEE— It has been exactly two years since the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in the United States and it has many Wisconsinites reflecting on the past 24 months.

At Milwaukee’s 3rd Street Market Hall, people are once again making their way out in public, but as the omicron variant spreads, others are being more cautious than they were in months past.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The COVID-19 omicron variant has yet to peak in Wisconsin, even as there are encouraging signs it is waning in parts of the northeastern United States where it was first detected, the state’s chief medical officer said Thursday.

Hopefully, the state is at or near the peak even though the data does not yet show it, said Dr. Ryan Westergaard during a conference call.

MILWAUKEE — Terry Lucas has been in the bar industry since the mid-2000s.

“2006, so, going on, what? 16 years,” Lucas recalled.

SUN PRAIRIE, Wis. — Demand for at-home SARS CoV-2 tests is so high right now, some pharmacists can’t even get them.

We’ve all seen an empty spot on a shelf at some point over the last six weeks, where rapid tests should be. Right now, they’re tough to find, even for retailers like pharmacies.

MILWAUKEE — Over the past two years, the scientific world has seen a steady flow of research updating what we know about the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, and how it affects humans.

Because the virus is so new, researchers are still grappling with many questions about its function. And because of the nature of the scientific process, no single study can completely answer those questions. Instead, new research is constantly challenging our understanding of the pandemic.

WISCONSIN — COVID-19 cases are skyrocketing across Wisconsin; Wisconsin Department of Health Services reported 18,216 new COVID-19 cases on Monday alone.

Between high numbers and long COVID-19 testing lines, many Wisconsinsites are turning to at-home tests, which have been available free of charge both state and nationwide.

WISCONSIN— It's been nearly two years since schools in Wisconsin and across the country first made the move to virtual learning as COVID-19 began to spread. Now, many Wisconsin schools have been forced to shift back temporarily as the spike in the omicron variant has triggered staffing shortages statewide.

"We're talking about things we can do to help at the agency," Dr. Jill Underly, the state superintendent of public instruction, said. "Clearly the mitigation factors of masking, vaccinations, getting tested— that's what's working."

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin National Guard troops will help fill staffing shortages at skilled nursing facilities over the coming weeks in hopes of opening up more beds and relieving pressure on hospitals overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients, Gov. Tony Evers announced Thursday.

The governor said troops are being trained as certified nursing assistants. About 50 soldiers were deployed to six nursing homes during the past week. Another 80 soldiers who started training this week will deploy at the end of January. And a group of 80 soldiers will begin training in early February and deploy by the end of that month.

MILWAUKEE — COVID-19 is spreading fast as the year gets underway. And with omicron sending cases to record highs, more and more people are navigating what to do after a positive test.

The CDC recently updated its guidance on quarantine and isolation. The new timelines can get complicated, but taking the right steps is important to help stop the spread.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Republican lawmakers are advancing a bill that would require employers to count a prior COVID-19 infection as an alternative to vaccination and testing.

The Wisconsin State Journal reported that the measure came up for a public hearing Tuesday. Republican lawmakers and bill supporters spent most of the hearing testifying about how they consider natural immunity resulting from an infection to be at least as effective as being vaccinated.

MILWAUKEE — As the COVID-19 omicron variant continues to spread, setting new case records in Wisconsin and as the CDC continues to update masking guidance for what might be the most effective type of mask, doctors advise that it's not a matter of less is more right now but rather, more is more.

"Masks is one layer of multiple things you should be thinking about," Dr. Dan Shirley, the interim medical director for UW Health Infection Control, told Spectrum News 1 on Monday. "And really the type of mask you need might vary depending on the type of situation you're in."

MILWAUKEE — So, 2021 didn’t turn out to be the year we ended the COVID-19 pandemic.

As we head into the new year, the novel coronavirus is surging once again. Despite the deja vu, though, we’re not in the same spot as before: We’ve uncovered a lot about COVID-19 in our second year of living with it.

APPLETON, Wis.—As college students resume classes across Wisconsin, they come back during a staggering surge in COVID-19 cases. It leaves administrators within the higher education sector facing a slew of tough decisions. The most challenging issue surrounds virtual versus in-person learning.

Thus far, Spectrum News 1 has confirmed Marquette University, Edgewood College and Lawrence University are taking precautions. The first two will delay the second semester by about one week, from Jan. 18 to Jan. 24. Marquette University will also require booster shots for students this semester.

Ambulances in Kansas speed toward hospitals then suddenly change direction because hospitals are full. Employee shortages in New York City cause delays in trash and subway services and diminish the ranks of firefighters and emergency workers. Airport officials shut down security checkpoints at the biggest terminal in Phoenix and schools across the nation struggle to find teachers for their classrooms.

The current explosion of omicron-fueled coronavirus infections in the U.S. is causing a breakdown in basic functions and services — the latest illustration of how COVID-19 keeps upending life more than two years into the pandemic.

MILWAUKEE — Sen. Ron Johnson on Thursday attempted to take censors at Twitter to task for "blocking" an earlier tweet this week, citing data from the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) to highlight claims of adverse effects and deaths tied to current COVID-19 vaccines. A doctor is pushing back on those claims citing misuse of the data.

Sadly, we passed two milestones on VAERS. Over 1 million adverse events and over 21,000 deaths. 30% of those deaths occurred on day 0, 1, or 2 following vaccination. When will federal agencies start being transparent with Americans? Why do they continue to ignore early treatment? pic.twitter.com/K4DbcOwayo

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Exhausted health officials on Thursday again begged Wisconsin residents to get vaccinated against COVID-19, test for the disease if they’ve been exposed and stay home as omicron swamps state hospitals.

The state Department of Health Services reported a staggering 11,574 cases on Thursday, shattering the old record of 10,288 cases set a day earlier.

MADISON, Wis.— All students will return to in-person learning in Madison on Monday, Jan. 10, the Madison Metropolitan School District announced Thursday.

The reopening comes after a weeklong delay in returning from MMSD's winter break.

WISCONSIN — COVID-19 cases are climbing in Wisconsin, and as a result, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services is seeing an increased demand for COVID-19 testing.

Here are COVID-19 testing sites in major metropolitan areas around the Badger State.

NEW BERLIN, Wis. — Joan Ross from Wauwatosa is vaccinated against COVID-19, and has received her booster shot. But, after a vacation to Maui, she got tested on Wednesday at Summit Clinical Laboratories in New Berlin.

“We think we might have been exposed to COVID,” Ross said before her test.

MILWAUKEE— In the midst of the ongoing surge in COVID-19 cases across the country, and in Wisconsin which recorded its highest one-day total Tuesday since the pandemic began, doctors continue to track more pediatric cases which are landing kids in the hospital.

"We're seeing a lot more kids testing positive, no question," said Dr. James Conway, a pediatric infectious disease physicial and medical director of UW Health's immunization program. "I think nationally we've seen that over 20% of the positives are kids and so we're seeing that as well. We're seeing a fairly steady rate of hospitalizations since Delta swept through and then Omicron on top of it."

MILWAUKEE— After the FDA gave them the green light earlier this week, the CDC appeared poised Tuesday to sign off on Pfizer's booster shot for kids between the ages of 12 and 15.

"Here in Dane County and this part of the state, this age group, 12-17, is heavily vaccinated, so we expect them to be back for their third shots [when approved]," said Mo Kharbat, the vice president of pharmacy services with SSM Health.

MILWAUKEE — It's a text message or phone call that a lot of Wisconsinites have gotten over the past few days and likely will into 2022: "Just a heads-up that I've tested positive for COVID-19 and it's likely not a bad idea to go get tested."

"The way it currently stands, if that person [who came in contact with someone who tested positive] is vaccinated and doesn't have symptoms, then they're okay to carry on as long as they mask when they're around others and they watch for symptoms," Anna Nick, a public health administrator with the Brown County Health Department, said Monday. "The recommendation is still— even for vaccinated individuals— to get tested around days 5-7 [since the exposure]."

MILWAUKEE— As the holidays wrap up, demand for COVID-19 testing is high in the Milwaukee area.

Friday, the Milwaukee Health Department decided to keep their Menomonee Valley testing site open on New Year's Eve. The city’s three COVID-19 testing sites were originally set to be closed on Friday.

MADISON, Wis.— Concerns of COVID-19 are giving students in Madison, Wisconsin an extended winter break.

In a virtual press conference Friday, the Madison Metropolitan School District announced a return to virtual learning due to a surge in COVID-19 cases.

MILWAUKEE— As of Thursday, Jefferson County in Wisconsin was one of 20 counties where the Wisconsin Department of Health Services considered the spread of COVID-19 to be "critically high."

"[Hospitals across Wisconsin are having to deal with very strained capacity and having to divert patients 100-200 miles away," Samroz Jakvani, an epidemiologist with the Jefferson County Health Department, said.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — COVID-19 has now claimed the lives of more than 10,000 Wisconsin residents.

The Wisconsin State Journal reported that state health officials counted 34 deaths on Wednesday, bringing the death total since the pandemic began to 10,014.

MILWAUKEE — As 2021 comes to a close, we’ll be ringing in another new year with the COVID-19 pandemic at our side.

This year may not have brought in the “new normal” that we hoped for. But we’ve still seen a lot of changes over the past 12 months.

MILWAUKEE — If you’re looking to get a COVID-19 test in Wisconsin these days, you’re definitely not alone.

With omicron’s quick spread this holiday season, the state is seeing longer lines at sites and higher demand for at-home kits. Health experts have stressed that testing is still a key tool for containing the COVID-19 spread amid our latest surge.

WISCONSIN — COVID-19 cases are climbing in Wisconsin, and as a result, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services is seeing an increased demand for COVID-19 testing.

On Nov. 29 and 30, more than 4,000 new cases were reported in the Badger State per day. DHS classified 30 Wisconsin counties as having "critically high" disease activity level, and the remaining 42 as having "very high" disease activity level.

MILWAUKEE — With New Year’s Eve coming up this weekend, lines to get a COVID-19 test continue to be long.

The long lines continue at COVID-19 testing centers around Milwaukee. The city testing site on the north side had a line wrapping around the building and the bock an hour before it even opened on Tuesday.

WISCONSIN — Floating around all over Facebook and Twitter is the unsubstantiated claim that the only reason hospitals are struggling with bed space right is because hospital workers simply haven't been showing up to work.

"Folks will say it was the vaccine mandate for health care organizations [or] that we fired everyone," Dr. Jeff Pothof, emergency medicine physician and chief quality officer at UW Health, said. "Truth be told, it's much less than 1% of folks that were let go at UW Health. In fact, most of our staff were vaccinated before the mandate and for the most part, our health care workers are working overtime, putting in way more effort, way more time, not taking their breaks so that they can have an impact [and] so that they can save lives."

An increasing number of young children are being hospitalized with COVID-19 across the United States, thanks in part to the omicron variant sweeping the nation.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the rate of adolescents hospitalized with COVID-19 increased by 30% between Dec. 18 and Dec. 25, the most recent date for which data is available. That’s an average of about 260 children being admitted to the hospital each day.

MILWAUKEE — Nearly two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, the world looks a lot different than it used to. And so does the coronavirus itself.

As it’s infected hundreds of millions of people around the globe, the SARS-CoV-2 virus has been in a state of constant change, making small tweaks to its genetic code as it goes along.