COVID-19 Testing Capacity Continues To Outpace Actual Testing
State officials say they've expanded guidance to allow more people to be tested.
COVID-19. Credit: U.S. Army.
Wisconsin’s statewide capacity to test for COVID-19 continues to exceed the number of tests processed.
Over the last 24 hours, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, nearly twice as many people could have been tested.
A total of 1,984 tests were processed, but the state has the capacity to process 3,756 tests. “We have 20 active labs that are running COVID-19 tests in Wisconsin,” said DHS Secretary-designee Andrea Palm on Friday during a media briefing. That’s up from a capacity of 3,500 reported Monday.
“To address this, we have expanded our testing guidance,” said Palm of the excess capacity. Testing previously was prioritized for those requiring hospitalization, health care workers or other vulnerable populations. That’s now only the case at the publicly-funded labs in Madison and Milwaukee said Dr. Ryan Westergaard, Chief Medical Officer at the DHS Bureau of Communicable Diseases.
Doctors now have much more flexibility to test for the disease in situations where it would beneficial to know the outcome said Westergaard. “If they think COVID-19 might be the diagnosis, they can feel free to order the test,” he said.
The state’s cumulative positive case total has risen to 3,068, with 33,225 people testing negative. Palm reiterated Friday that the positive case count undercounts the actual number of people with the virus because testing capacity still does not allow everyone with mild symptoms to be tested.
The death total grew by 17, the second biggest one day increase, and has reached 128 in the state. That includes 77 deaths in Milwaukee County.
The cumulative hospitalization rate holds steady at 29 percent, with 904 hospitalizations throughout the outbreak. A newly released dashboard shows that 443 COVID-19 patients are currently hospitalized across the state.
Palm said the state is working to purchase more ventilators and is working with a company to purchase 1,500 ventilators. An earlier effort to purchase 10,000 fell through. The state has 1,233 ventilators according to a state dashboard.
Charts and Maps
Wisconsin COVID-19 summary
| Status | Number (%) of People as of 4/10/2020 |
|---|---|
| Negative Test Result | 33,225 |
| Positive Test Result | 3,068 |
| Hospitalizations | 904 (29%) |
| Deaths | 128 |
Percent of COVID-19 cases by hospitalization status
| Hospitilization status | Number of confirmed cases as of 4/10/2020 | Percent of confirmed cases as of 4/10/2020 |
|---|---|---|
| Ever hospitalized | 904 | 29% |
| Never hospitalized | 1,561 | 51% |
| Unknown | 603 | 20% |
| Total | 3,068 | 100% |
Confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths by race
| Race | Number of cases as of 4/10/2020 | Percent of cases as of 4/10/2020 | Number of deaths as of 4/10/2020 | Percent of deaths as of 4/10/2020 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Indian | 28 | 1% | 1 | 1% |
| Asian or Pacific Islander | 71 | 2% | 4 | 3% |
| Black | 812 | 26% | 56 | 44% |
| White | 1,535 | 50% | 65 | 51% |
| Multiple or Other races | 60 | 2% | 0 | 0% |
| Unknown | 562 | 18% | 2 | 2% |
| Total | 3,068 | 100% | 128 | 100% |
Confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths by ethnicity
| Ethnicity | Number of cases as of 4/10/2020 | Percent of cases as of 4/10/2020 | Number of deaths as of 4/10/2020 | Percent of deaths as of 4/10/2020 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hispanic or Latino | 313 | 10% | 3 | 2% |
| Not Hispanic or Latino | 2,085 | 68% | 122 | 95% |
| Unknown | 670 | 22% | 3 | 2% |
| Total | 3,068 | 100% | 128 | 100% |
Percent of COVID-19 cases and deaths by gender
| Gender | Confirmed Cases as of 4/10/2020 | Deaths as of 4/10/2020 |
|---|---|---|
| Female | 53% | 38% |
| Male | 47% | 62% |
| Total Number | 3,068 | 128 |
Summary of COVID-19 cases by age group
| Age Group (Years) | Cases as of 4/10/2020 | Ever hospitalized as of 4/10/2020 | Any Intensive Care as of 4/10/2020 | Deaths as of 4/10/2020 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| <10 | 13 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| 10-19 | 36 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 20-29 | 343 | 25 | 4 | 0 |
| 30-39 | 433 | 60 | 14 | 3 |
| 40-49 | 497 | 95 | 23 | 2 |
| 50-59 | 594 | 166 | 45 | 15 |
| 60-69 | 566 | 217 | 73 | 24 |
| 70-79 | 351 | 190 | 56 | 42 |
| 80-89 | 178 | 120 | 27 | 27 |
| 90+ | 57 | 26 | 5 | 15 |
| Total | 3,068 | 904 | 247 | 128 |
Results by county
| Wisconsin County | Positive as of 4/10/2020 | Negative as of 4/10/2020 | Deaths as of 4/10/2020 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adams | 2 | 75 | 0 |
| Ashland | 1 | 57 | 0 |
| Barron | 6 | 406 | 0 |
| Bayfield | 3 | 80 | 0 |
| Brown | 55 | 724 | 1 |
| Buffalo | 2 | 105 | 1 |
| Burnett | 0 | 45 | 0 |
| Calumet | 4 | 163 | 0 |
| Chippewa | 18 | 539 | 0 |
| Clark | 7 | 94 | 0 |
| Columbia | 24 | 442 | 1 |
| Crawford | 3 | 113 | 0 |
| Dane | 313 | 5,317 | 12 |
| Dodge | 18 | 461 | 0 |
| Door | 8 | 92 | 0 |
| Douglas | 7 | 256 | 0 |
| Dunn | 8 | 512 | 0 |
| Eau Claire | 21 | 1,051 | 0 |
| Florence | 2 | 5 | 0 |
| Fond du Lac | 52 | 815 | 2 |
| Forest | 0 | 23 | 0 |
| Grant | 4 | 217 | 1 |
| Green | 9 | 177 | 0 |
| Green Lake | 0 | 85 | 0 |
| Iowa | 4 | 138 | 0 |
| Iron | 1 | 18 | 1 |
| Jackson | 10 | 110 | 0 |
| Jefferson | 21 | 435 | 0 |
| Juneau | 5 | 182 | 0 |
| Kenosha | 147 | 1,074 | 1 |
| Kewaunee | 1 | 55 | 0 |
| La Crosse | 25 | 1,098 | 0 |
| Lafayette | 2 | 50 | 0 |
| Langlade | 0 | 51 | 0 |
| Lincoln | 0 | 105 | 0 |
| Manitowoc | 3 | 158 | 0 |
| Marathon | 12 | 348 | 0 |
| Marinette | 3 | 122 | 0 |
| Marquette | 2 | 92 | 0 |
| Menominee | 1 | 8 | 0 |
| Milwaukee | 1,575 | 6,760 | 77 |
| Monroe | 8 | 371 | 0 |
| Oconto | 3 | 130 | 0 |
| Oneida | 5 | 149 | 0 |
| Outagamie | 29 | 525 | 2 |
| Ozaukee | 71 | 503 | 9 |
| Pepin | 0 | 69 | 0 |
| Pierce | 7 | 234 | 0 |
| Polk | 1 | 120 | 0 |
| Portage | 4 | 155 | 0 |
| Price | 0 | 39 | 0 |
| Racine | 100 | 857 | 3 |
| Richland | 4 | 153 | 0 |
| Rock | 51 | 929 | 2 |
| Rusk | 3 | 66 | 0 |
| Sauk | 25 | 371 | 2 |
| Sawyer | 1 | 98 | 0 |
| Shawano | 5 | 144 | 0 |
| Sheboygan | 33 | 506 | 2 |
| St. Croix | 7 | 226 | 0 |
| Taylor | 0 | 53 | 0 |
| Trempealeau | 1 | 246 | 0 |
| Vernon | 0 | 188 | 0 |
| Vilas | 4 | 67 | 0 |
| Walworth | 35 | 361 | 0 |
| Washburn | 0 | 75 | 0 |
| Washington | 67 | 917 | 3 |
| Waukesha | 193 | 1,952 | 6 |
| Waupaca | 3 | 165 | 1 |
| Waushara | 2 | 69 | 0 |
| Winnebago | 25 | 584 | 1 |
| Wood | 2 | 245 | 0 |
| Total | 3,068 | 33,225 | 128 |
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