Westergaard said the drop is likely due to a number of factors, including immunity among the more than half-million people in the state who have contracted the disease who may be protected for three to six months a wider adoption of preventative measures like wearing masks and social distancing, and better capacity by local health officials for contact tracing and containment after being overwhelmed by the November surge.

Were actually better able to respond to local clusters, to local cases, than we were before, he said, because weve really strengthened that muscle. Our local containment efforts have been improved over time so that when we do have cases we can do the things we needed to do.

According to Westergaard, its probably too early the vaccine effort to credit it with significantly lowering COVID-19 case numbers in the state. And he cautioned that the new variants could potentially fuel a new surge.

Were very vulnerable and we need to take the risk seriously that this progress could be undone because of novel variants, he said.

As of Tuesday, nearly 800,000 vaccine doses had been administered in the state, 174,000 of those being second doses, completing the vaccination process. More than a third of people 65 and older have received at least one dose.

According to the CDC, Wisconsin now ranks eighth among states for the rate of vaccines administered after recently being near the bottom of the pack. Officials have attributed the early slow start to several factors, including a large share of the states allotment from the federal government being reserved for the federal program for vaccinating nursing home residents and long-term care patients.

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Progress in driving COVID-19 numbers down in Wisconsin could be 'undone' by new variants - Madison.com