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DHS official: 1 in 3 Americans have had COVID

Posted at 5:41 PM, May 27, 2021
and last updated 2021-05-28 09:45:13-04

MADISON (NBC 26) — To get a clearer picture of where we are in the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic here in Wisconsin, we asked state health officials to estimate how many Americans have been exposed to the virus.

"Now, a year a year and a half into the epidemic, seems like a reasonable estimate could be that about a third, maybe even higher than that of people in the US have been exposed," said Dr. Ryan Westergard, chief medical officer for communicable diseases at Wisconsin's Department of Health Services.

Westergard went on to stress we are not near having reached community immunity levels and need to get more people in Wisconsin vaccinated.