Positive Cases Of COVID-19 In Wisconsin Hold Steady Around 4 Percent

There have been 26,227 positive cases of COVID-19 in Wisconsin as of Thursday, according to the state Department of Health Services. That’s an increase of 464 cases from the day before.

According to health officials, 766 people in Wisconsin have died from COVID-19 as of Wednesday afternoon, with 9 new deaths reported since Wednesday.

DHS reported 498,561 total negative tests for the coronavirus, an increase of 10,758 from Wednesday to Thursday.

Seventy-eight percent of people who have tested positive for the virus in Wisconsin have recovered, according to DHS. Three percent have died.

Wisconsin’s daily testing capacity — based on the availability of test supplies and adequate staffing — has grown from 120 available lab tests in early March to 18,355 as of Thursday. The number of actual tests reported on Wednesday was 11,222.

An increase in testing is one reason for the increase in the number of positive cases. The percentage of positive tests fell to 4.1 percent on Thursday. On Wednesday, 4.3 percent of tests were positive.

As of Thursday, Wisconsin overall was no longer seeing a 14-day downward trajectory in reports of COVID-like cases, and the department is no longer reporting a downward trajectory of positive tests as a percent of total tests within a 14-day period.

According to DHS, 3,326 people have been hospitalized because of the virus as of Thursday. That means at least 13 percent of people who have tested positive for the new coronavirus in the state have been hospitalized. DHS officials said they don’t know the hospitalization history of 7,539 people, or 29 percent.

On Wednesday, DHS also provided its first update to a new data dashboard that looks at COVID-19 activity on a county and regional level. That dashboard shows that 22 counties in the state have a “high” COVID-19 activity level — a designation based on a county’s number of cases per 100,000 residents over the past 14 days, and the extent to which that case rate is increasing.

The dashboard also listed the overall state’s COVID-19 activity level as “high.”

La Crosse, Trempealeau, Milwaukee, Lafayette and Winnebago counties have the highest case rates in the state, all with over 100 cases per 100,000 residents reported over the past two weeks. Seven counties, including La Crosse and Milwaukee, have seen a statistically significant rise in their case rate over that same time period, based on DHS analysis.

There have been confirmed cases in all 72 of Wisconsin’s counties, although according to the latest COVID-19 activity data, eight counties recently had a two-week stretch with no new reported cases.

Milwaukee County — the hardest hit in the state — surpassed 10,000 cases of COVID-19 last week, and was at 10,674 as of Thursday.