There are 6,854 positive cases of COVID-19 in Wisconsin, the state Department of Health Services announced Thursday. That’s an increase of 334 cases from the day before.
It’s the largest single-day increase in positive cases the state has seen since the outbreak began. Previously, the largest single-day increase was a jump on Saturday of 331 cases.
The state has increased its testing capacity.
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On Thursday, DHS reported 69,394 negative cases, an increase of 2,764 from Wednesday to Thursday.
A key metric outlined in Gov. Tony Evers’ “Badger Bounce Back” plan is for the percentage of positive cases to be in decline for 14 days. According to state data, 6.9 percent of tests were positive on Wednesday, and 10.8 percent were positive on Thursday.
According to figures from DHS, 316 people in Wisconsin have died from COVID-19 as of Thursday afternoon.
DHS reports 1,512 people have been hospitalized because of the virus. That means at least 22 percent of people who have tested positive for the new coronavirus in the state have been hospitalized. DHS officials have said they don’t know the hospitalization history of 1,388 cases, or 20 percent.
Brown County has seen a surge in positive tests after health officials traced hundreds of cases to meatpacking facilities there. As of Thursday afternoon, Brown County had 1,057 positive cases of the new coronavirus — an increase of 86 cases from Wednesday.
According to the Brown County Health Department, as of Wednesday, there were 262 confirmed cases among employees at JBS Packerland in Green Bay, with 86 linked cases. American Foods Group in Green Bay has 170 confirmed cases among employees, with 27 linked cases.
With the recent increases in testing capacity, health officials have loosened restrictions on who can get tested, subject to the availability of testing supplies.
As of Thursday afternoon, Wisconsin has 50 labs performing COVID-19 tests, up from eight labs in March. According to DHS, they’re able to process 11,047 samples per day. The state has a goal of completing about 12,000 tests per day, DHS Secretary Andrea Palm said Monday.
There are confirmed cases in 66 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties.
The following counties have no confirmed cases as of Wednesday afternoon: Burnett, Forest, Langlade, Lincoln, Pepin and Taylor.
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