Jeramey Jannene
Daily

State Still Not Using Full Testing Capacity

Death toll from COVID-19 grows to 230, 132 in Milwaukee County.

By - Apr 20th, 2020 02:46 pm
Get a daily rundown of the top stories on Urban Milwaukee
COVID-19. Credit: U.S. Army.

COVID-19. Credit: U.S. Army.

The state’s testing capacity for COVID-19 continues to substantially outpace the number of tests performed.

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services reported that 1,433 tests were processed in the past 24 hours, below the capacity of 7,238 tests that the 36 active labs can process.

Governor Tony Evers announced Monday that testing capacity will need to increase to 85,000 tests per week, approximately 12,000 per day, for the state to reopen.

DHS Secretary-designee Andrea Palm said the plan, known as the Badger Bounce Back, would signal to physicians that they can order more tests.

Evers said the Wisconsin National Guard would assist in testing local outbreaks, the first instance of which was supporting the testing of all 623 inmates at the Milwaukee County House of Correction over the weekend.

With the 1,423 new tests, DHS reported that 153 positive cases were confirmed, bringing the state’s total to 4,499. “A large number of those have recovered,” said Dr. Ryan Westergaard, Chief Medical Officer of the DHS Bureau of Communicable Diseases, during a media briefing Monday.

The percentage of tests that came back positive was 10.68 percent, below the April average of 9.63 percent.

The death toll from the virus rose to 230, with 10 new deaths reported. Milwaukee County has seen 132 deaths from the virus, up seven from yesterday.

The hospitalization rate over the length of the outbreak is at 27 percent for those with confirmed cases (1,211 hospitalizations).

Statewide, 406 intensive care units remain available, below the 451.58 average since the Wisconsin Hospital Association started reporting the data on April 9th. A total of 303 ventilators are in use as the availability of ventilators has trended positively in the past two weeks.

Charts and Maps

Wisconsin COVID-19 summary

Status Number (%) of People as of 4/20/2020
Negative Test Results 46,603
Positive Test Results 4,499
Hospitalizations 1,211 (27%)
Deaths 230

Percent of COVID-19 cases and deaths by gender

Gender Confirmed Cases as of 4/20/2020 Deaths as of 4/20/2020
Female 53% 43%
Male 47% 57%
Total Number 4,499 230

Confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths by race

Race Number of cases as of 4/20/2020 Percent of cases as of 4/20/2020 Number of deaths as of 4/20/2020 Percent of deaths as of 4/20/2020
American Indian 39 1% 2 1%
Asian or Pacific Islander 124 3% 5 2%
Black 1,048 23% 81 35%
White 2,272 51% 137 60%
Multiple or Other races 172 4% 0 0%
Unknown 844 19% 5 2%
Total 4,499 100% 230 100%

Confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths by ethnicity

Ethnicity Number of cases as of 4/20/2020 Percent of cases as of 4/20/2020 Number of deaths as of 4/20/2020 Percent of deaths as of 4/20/2020
Hispanic or Latino 690 15% 12 5%
Not Hispanic or Latino 2,893 64% 212 92%
Unknown 916 20% 6 3%
Total 4,499 100% 230 100%

Number of positive cases and deaths by county

Wisconsin County Positive as of 4/20/2020 Negative as of 4/20/2020 Deaths as of 4/20/2020 Rate (positive cases per 100,000 people) as of 4/20/2020 Case fatality percentage (percent of cases who died) as of 4/20/2020
Adams 4 108 1 19.9 25%
Ashland 2 76 0 12.7 0%
Barron 6 555 0 13.3 0%
Bayfield 3 107 1 20.0 33%
Brown 285 1,253 1 109.7 0%
Buffalo 4 136 1 30.4 25%
Burnett 0 64 0 0.0 0%
Calumet 6 256 0 12.0 0%
Chippewa 20 735 0 31.4 0%
Clark 16 142 1 46.4 6%
Columbia 27 569 1 47.4 4%
Crawford 3 156 0 18.4 0%
Dane 364 6,923 19 68.7 5%
Dodge 19 648 1 21.6 5%
Door 9 107 1 32.8 11%
Douglas 8 383 0 18.4 0%
Dunn 9 682 0 20.2 0%
Eau Claire 22 1,454 0 21.4 0%
Florence 2 14 0 46.1 0%
Fond du Lac 65 1,008 3 63.5 5%
Forest 0 37 0 0.0 0%
Grant 23 406 3 44.4 13%
Green 9 236 0 24.4 0%
Green Lake 1 126 0 5.3 0%
Iowa 6 192 0 25.4 0%
Iron 2 27 1 35.0 50%
Jackson 12 189 1 58.5 8%
Jefferson 32 638 0 37.8 0%
Juneau 10 245 1 37.9 10%
Kenosha 257 1,472 5 152.7 2%
Kewaunee 8 86 1 39.3 13%
La Crosse 25 1,538 0 21.2 0%
Lafayette 3 72 0 17.9 0%
Langlade 0 70 0 0.0 0%
Lincoln 0 132 0 0.0 0%
Manitowoc 7 221 0 8.8 0%
Marathon 17 493 1 12.6 6%
Marinette 5 217 1 12.3 20%
Marquette 3 120 1 19.7 33%
Menominee 1 17 0 21.8 0%
Milwaukee 2,191 9,622 132 229.6 6%
Monroe 13 545 0 28.6 0%
Oconto 5 196 0 13.3 0%
Oneida 6 221 0 17.0 0%
Outagamie 35 876 2 18.9 6%
Ozaukee 80 666 9 90.6 11%
Pepin 0 87 0 0.0 0%
Pierce 7 301 0 16.8 0%
Polk 4 179 0 9.2 0%
Portage 4 219 0 5.7 0%
Price 1 49 0 7.4 0%
Racine 174 1,336 10 89.0 6%
Richland 8 191 1 45.6 13%
Rock 80 1,246 4 49.5 5%
Rusk 4 91 0 28.2 0%
Sauk 34 542 3 53.5 9%
Sawyer 2 204 0 12.2 0%
Shawano 6 236 0 14.6 0%
Sheboygan 43 641 2 37.3 5%
St. Croix 11 321 0 12.5 0%
Taylor 0 74 0 0.0 0%
Trempealeau 1 366 0 3.4 0%
Vernon 0 288 0 0.0 0%
Vilas 4 92 0 18.5 0%
Walworth 86 540 6 83.5 7%
Washburn 1 120 0 6.4 0%
Washington 86 1,236 3 63.9 3%
Waukesha 269 2,682 11 67.4 4%
Waupaca 4 274 1 7.8 25%
Waushara 2 98 0 8.3 0%
Winnebago 41 838 1 24.1 2%
Wood 2 316 0 2.7 0%
Total 4,499 46,603 230 77.9 5%

If you think stories like this are important, become a member of Urban Milwaukee and help support real, independent journalism. Plus you get some cool added benefits, all detailed here.

More about the Coronavirus Pandemic

Categories: Health

One thought on “Daily: State Still Not Using Full Testing Capacity”

  1. Verhal says:
    April 21, 2020 at 1:25 pm

    The statistics show the number of tests that can be done but how many test kits does WI have? Is there a shortage of test kits? Is there a shortage of supplies to collect the specimens? We still keep hearing about people with symptoms that are not being tested.

Leave a Reply

You must be an Urban Milwaukee member to leave a comment. Membership, which includes a host of perks, including an ad-free website, tickets to marquee events like Summerfest, the Wisconsin State Fair and the Florentine Opera, a better photo browser and access to members-only, behind-the-scenes tours, starts at $9/month. Learn more.

Join now and cancel anytime.

If you are an existing member, sign-in to leave a comment.

Have questions? Need to report an error? Contact Us