Jeramey Jannene
Daily

COVID-19 Testing Remains High, Positive Case Rate Surges 28%

Brown County passes Milwaukee County for highest case rate. State reports biggest one day case increase.

By - Apr 25th, 2020 02:29 pm
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COVID-19. Credit: U.S. Army.

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

One day after the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) reported labs processed over 3,000 COVID-19 tests in a single day for the first time and saw the percentage coming back positive fall, new figures show testing remains strong, but the percentage of tests that were positive jumped 28 percent.

On Friday, DHS reported 304 new positive cases, but with only 8.89 percent tests processed coming back as positive, below the April average of 9.83 percent. “That’s the number that we want to see gradually going down,” said Dr. Ryan Westergaard, Chief Medical Officer of the DHS Bureau of Communicable Diseases during a media briefing Thursday afternoon. And it had for two days, but Saturday’s positive rate was 11.43 percent.

Governor Tony Evers said he wants to see the figure fall 14 consecutive days before implementing the first phases of the plan, but wouldn’t necessarily reset the clock as a result of a one-day blip. “If there is reason to believe that one day was an anomaly we will take a look at that,” he said. For more on the six criteria being tracked as part of the Badger Bounce Back plan, see our coverage from April 20th.

DHS reported Saturday afternoon that 2,896 tests were processed in the last 24 hours, the second biggest total on record following yesterday’s 3,421. But with the higher positive case, Wisconsin set a new single-day record for newly-confirmed COVID-19 cases at 331.

With the expanded testing, the percentage of individuals with confirmed cases requiring hospitalization has fallen to 24 percent (1,376 cumulative hospitalizations). The number had peaked at 30 percent in recent weeks. There are currently 934 ventilator and 443 intensive care unit beds available across the state according to the Wisconsin Hospital Association. Since the data became publicly available on April 10th, WHA has reported an average of 911 ventilators and 453 ventilators as available.

The death toll from the virus continues to move higher, but the growth in confirmed deaths does not directly correlate to the daily testing report. The state reported 266 confirmed deaths from COVID-19 as of Saturday afternoon, with four new deaths in the past 24 hours.

Milwaukee County and its African-American residents continue to represent a disproportionate share of cases and deaths. Milwaukee County is the site of 2,525 of the state’s 5,867 cases and 157 of its 266 confirmed deaths. Data from Milwaukee County shows that 79 of the 147 deaths confirmed by the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner have been of black residents. Of the 2,547 cases confirmed by the county, 1,139 are black residents. Individuals identifying as black represent 26 percent of Milwaukee County’s population.

But Milwaukee County no longer has the highest percentage of residents testing positive. Brown County, home of Green Bay, now has 277.2 cases per 100,000 residents after a large outbreak emerged centered around employees at a meatpacking plant. Milwaukee County has 264.6 cases per 100,000 residents. Kenosha County is third with 195.4 per 100,000 residents. Racine (130.5) and Walworth (128.1) are the only other counties with over 100 cases per 100,000 residents.

Charts and Maps

Wisconsin COVID-19 summary

Status Number (%) of People as of 4/25/2020
Negative Test Results 57,138
Positive Test Results 5,687
Hospitalizations 1,376 (24%)
Deaths 266

Percent of COVID-19 cases and deaths by gender

Gender Confirmed Cases as of 4/25/2020 Deaths as of 4/25/2020
Female 52% 41%
Male 48% 59%
Total Number 5,687 266

Confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths by race

Race Number of cases as of 4/25/2020 Percent of cases as of 4/25/2020 Number of deaths as of 4/25/2020 Percent of deaths as of 4/25/2020
American Indian 53 1% 3 1%
Asian or Pacific Islander 170 3% 5 2%
Black 1,366 24% 90 34%
White 3,001 53% 162 61%
Multiple or Other races 373 7% 2 1%
Unknown 724 13% 4 2%
Total 5,687 100% 266 100%

Confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths by ethnicity

Ethnicity Number of cases as of 4/25/2020 Percent of cases as of 4/25/2020 Number of deaths as of 4/25/2020 Percent of deaths as of 4/25/2020
Hispanic or Latino 1,247 22% 16 6%
Not Hispanic or Latino 3,656 64% 242 91%
Unknown 784 14% 8 3%
Total 5,687 100% 266 100%

Number of positive cases and deaths by county

Wisconsin County Positive as of 4/25/2020 Negative as of 4/25/2020 Deaths as of 4/25/2020 Rate (positive cases per 100,000 people) as of 4/25/2020 Case fatality percentage (percent of cases who died) as of 4/25/2020
Adams 4 133 1 19.9 25%
Ashland 2 102 0 12.7 0%
Barron 6 675 0 13.3 0%
Bayfield 3 124 1 20.0 33%
Brown 720 1,868 2 277.2 0%
Buffalo 4 159 1 30.4 25%
Burnett 0 74 0 0.0 0%
Calumet 7 310 0 14.1 0%
Chippewa 20 870 0 31.4 0%
Clark 19 184 1 55.1 5%
Columbia 27 654 1 47.4 4%
Crawford 3 187 0 18.4 0%
Dane 401 8,260 21 75.7 5%
Dodge 23 790 1 26.2 4%
Door 10 120 1 36.4 10%
Douglas 9 446 0 20.7 0%
Dunn 9 844 0 20.2 0%
Eau Claire 24 1,680 0 23.3 0%
Florence 2 18 0 46.1 0%
Fond du Lac 67 1,222 3 65.5 4%
Forest 0 46 0 0.0 0%
Grant 28 509 3 54.0 11%
Green 11 277 0 29.8 0%
Green Lake 1 159 0 5.3 0%
Iowa 7 228 0 29.6 0%
Iron 2 37 1 35.0 50%
Jackson 12 237 1 58.5 8%
Jefferson 39 761 0 46.1 0%
Juneau 12 289 1 45.4 8%
Kenosha 329 1,675 7 195.4 2%
Kewaunee 10 103 1 49.1 10%
La Crosse 26 1,802 0 22.1 0%
Lafayette 4 94 0 23.9 0%
Langlade 0 87 0 0.0 0%
Lincoln 0 165 0 0.0 0%
Manitowoc 9 291 0 11.3 0%
Marathon 18 585 1 13.3 6%
Marinette 7 288 1 17.3 14%
Marquette 3 144 1 19.7 33%
Menominee 1 27 0 21.8 0%
Milwaukee 2,525 12,210 157 264.6 6%
Monroe 14 646 0 30.8 0%
Oconto 6 240 0 16.0 0%
Oneida 6 258 0 17.0 0%
Outagamie 43 1,101 2 23.3 5%
Ozaukee 82 798 9 92.9 11%
Pepin 0 99 0 0.0 0%
Pierce 8 357 0 19.2 0%
Polk 4 237 0 9.2 0%
Portage 4 257 0 5.7 0%
Price 1 68 0 7.4 0%
Racine 255 1,766 10 130.5 4%
Richland 10 221 1 57.0 10%
Rock 151 1,533 4 93.3 3%
Rusk 4 107 0 28.2 0%
Sauk 38 663 3 59.8 8%
Sawyer 2 230 0 12.2 0%
Shawano 8 290 0 19.5 0%
Sheboygan 44 734 2 38.2 5%
St. Croix 13 420 0 14.8 0%
Taylor 0 83 0 0.0 0%
Trempealeau 2 428 0 6.8 0%
Vernon 1 340 0 3.3 0%
Vilas 4 121 0 18.5 0%
Walworth 132 670 8 128.1 6%
Washburn 1 149 0 6.4 0%
Washington 92 1,524 4 68.4 4%
Waukesha 299 3,171 14 75.0 5%
Waupaca 7 324 1 13.6 14%
Waushara 2 147 0 8.3 0%
Winnebago 48 1,037 1 28.2 2%
Wood 2 385 0 2.7 0%
Total 5,687 57,138 266 98.4 5%

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