1,059 New Cases As Governor Announces Mask Mandate
Second biggest testing and case day on record.
COVID-19. Credit: U.S. Army.
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services reported 1,059 new COVID-19 cases from 17,270 processed tests on Thursday afternoon. It was the second-highest testing total and case total ever reported by the department.
The results mark 20 out of 22 days that the state has recorded over 700 new cases of the disease, a level it had hit only once before the stretch began.
The one-day positive case rate, the percentage of tests that registered a new case of the disease, was 6.13 percent. The seven- and 14-day averages stand at 6.54 and 6.92 percent. As testing and cases have surged in the past two weeks, the 14-day average has fallen from a July 21st peak of 7.19 percent.
The 14-day rate had hit a low of 2.69 percent on June 19th.
“Unfortunately things have changed drastically since then,” said Governor Tony Evers in a press briefing Thursday afternoon.
Evers issued a new emergency health order and with it a statewide mask mandate. The order goes into effect August 1st, the same day Jill Karofsky replaces a justice who voted against the legality of the state’s Safer at Home order in May. But Evers said his decision to issue the order is based on science. “The virus is the issue, not Karofsky,” he told reporters. “We have been thinking about this for several weeks.”
There is still no data on the number of people actively hospitalized, and the issue is expected to continue into next week. Palm said hospitals must enter data into two different systems, one federal and one for the state. “We were given very little notice on some new reporting requirements from the federal government,” said Palm. “We have been diligently working with them to smooth out these issues.”
Dr. Ryan Westergaard, Chief Medical Officer of the DHS Bureau of Communicable Diseases, said he didn’t believe any of the hospitals were at a capacity level where they needed to use crisis care plans at the moment, but that didn’t mean the public health system is not strained.
“I would anecdotally say that nearly 100 percent of our local health departments are in crisis mode,” he said of contact tracing and other efforts related to controlling the spread of the virus. “Our ability to control it at the local level is becoming very threatened, very weak.”
A total of 51 people were newly hospitalized in the past 24 hours, above the 30-day average of 38.1. The average has trended upward in recent weeks.
But the percentage of people requiring hospitalization has trended downward as the average age of those contracting the disease has decreased. DHS reports that 8.8 percent of those with a confirmed case have required hospitalization, but breaking that down by decade reveals a hospitalization rate that ranges from 43 percent for people in their eighties to two percent for teens.
Individuals under the age of 40 represent 54.4 percent of all new cases in the past 30 days. Individuals ages 20 to 29 represent 25 percent all COVID-19 cases over the length of the outbreak and 28.5 percent of cases in the past 30 days.
The death toll from the disease climbed to 919, an increase of eight in the past 24 hours. An average of 4.5 deaths per day have been recorded in the past 30 days, below the 100-day average of 6.77.
According to DHS data, 1,998.4 out of every 100,000 Milwaukee County residents have tested positive for COVID-19 (up from 1,967) since the outbreak began. Racine County has 1,565 cases per 100,000 residents (up from 1,541). Brown County, which is anchored by Green Bay, has 1,499.7 cases per 100,000 residents (up from 1,483.2).
Kenosha (1,410.3), Iron (1,207.3), Walworth (1,108.6), Trempealeau (968.1), Waukesha (847.4), Rock (822.2), Dane (756.3) and Dodge (731.4) are the only other counties with more than 700 cases per 100,000 residents.
The statewide average of cases per 100,000 residents rose to 901.8 (up from 883.4 yesterday).
Charts and Maps
Data from DHS.
Percent of COVID-19 cases by hospitalization status
| Hospitalization status | Number of confirmed cases as of 7/30/2020 | Percent of confirmed cases as of 7/30/2020 |
|---|---|---|
| Ever hospitalized | 4,590 | 9% |
| Never hospitalized | 29,761 | 57% |
| Unknown | 17,757 | 34% |
| Total | 52,108 | 100% |
Percent of COVID-19 cases resulting in hospitalization within age group
Data from DHS.
Confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths by gender
Data from DHS.
Confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths by race
Data from DHS.
Confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths by ethnicity
Data from DHS.
Number of positive cases and deaths by county
| Wisconsin County | Positive as of 7/30/2020 | Negative as of 7/30/2020 | Deaths as of 7/30/2020 | Rate (positive cases per 100,000 people) as of 7/30/2020 | Case fatality percentage (percent of cases who died) as of 7/30/2020 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adams | 66 | 2,304 | 2 | 328.8 | 3% |
| Ashland | 15 | 1,596 | 0 | 95.5 | 0% |
| Barron | 207 | 5,450 | 3 | 457.4 | 1% |
| Bayfield | 18 | 1,762 | 1 | 120.1 | 6% |
| Brown | 3,896 | 43,458 | 50 | 1499.7 | 1% |
| Buffalo | 41 | 1,570 | 2 | 311.4 | 5% |
| Burnett | 13 | 1,441 | 1 | 85.2 | 8% |
| Calumet | 230 | 5,392 | 2 | 461.8 | 1% |
| Chippewa | 203 | 9,665 | 0 | 319.0 | 0% |
| Clark | 167 | 3,426 | 7 | 484.2 | 4% |
| Columbia | 210 | 8,866 | 1 | 368.7 | 0% |
| Crawford | 55 | 3,158 | 0 | 337.7 | 0% |
| Dane | 4,007 | 116,839 | 35 | 756.3 | 1% |
| Dodge | 642 | 14,785 | 5 | 731.4 | 1% |
| Door | 84 | 4,072 | 3 | 306.1 | 4% |
| Douglas | 110 | 4,199 | 0 | 253.4 | 0% |
| Dunn | 101 | 5,182 | 0 | 227.0 | 0% |
| Eau Claire | 462 | 13,427 | 3 | 448.6 | 1% |
| Florence | 7 | 548 | 0 | 161.4 | 0% |
| Fond du Lac | 522 | 13,689 | 6 | 510.2 | 1% |
| Forest | 57 | 887 | 4 | 632.1 | 7% |
| Grant | 313 | 8,348 | 14 | 603.9 | 4% |
| Green | 121 | 4,395 | 1 | 328.2 | 1% |
| Green Lake | 50 | 2,276 | 0 | 266.6 | 0% |
| Iowa | 62 | 3,309 | 0 | 262.5 | 0% |
| Iron | 69 | 933 | 1 | 1207.3 | 1% |
| Jackson | 45 | 4,955 | 1 | 219.4 | 2% |
| Jefferson | 542 | 12,000 | 5 | 640.3 | 1% |
| Juneau | 117 | 5,707 | 1 | 442.9 | 1% |
| Kenosha | 2,374 | 25,558 | 51 | 1410.3 | 2% |
| Kewaunee | 109 | 2,329 | 2 | 535.4 | 2% |
| La Crosse | 775 | 16,457 | 1 | 657.6 | 0% |
| Lafayette | 102 | 2,110 | 0 | 609.5 | 0% |
| Langlade | 42 | 1,944 | 1 | 219.2 | 2% |
| Lincoln | 60 | 2,990 | 0 | 215.5 | 0% |
| Manitowoc | 281 | 9,622 | 1 | 353.9 | 0% |
| Marathon | 532 | 11,483 | 5 | 393.3 | 1% |
| Marinette | 272 | 6,478 | 3 | 671.0 | 1% |
| Marquette | 67 | 1,752 | 1 | 440.6 | 1% |
| Menominee | 18 | 1,613 | 0 | 393.1 | 0% |
| Milwaukee | 19,069 | 166,828 | 433 | 1998.4 | 2% |
| Monroe | 200 | 6,635 | 1 | 439.5 | 1% |
| Oconto | 164 | 5,489 | 0 | 436.7 | 0% |
| Oneida | 79 | 4,165 | 0 | 223.5 | 0% |
| Outagamie | 1,037 | 23,478 | 12 | 561.3 | 1% |
| Ozaukee | 514 | 10,236 | 16 | 582.2 | 3% |
| Pepin | 40 | 928 | 0 | 550.8 | 0% |
| Pierce | 160 | 4,335 | 0 | 384.6 | 0% |
| Polk | 108 | 5,465 | 2 | 249.1 | 2% |
| Portage | 330 | 8,215 | 0 | 467.4 | 0% |
| Price | 18 | 1,729 | 0 | 133.4 | 0% |
| Racine | 3,058 | 40,861 | 75 | 1565.0 | 2% |
| Richland | 25 | 2,571 | 4 | 142.5 | 16% |
| Rock | 1,330 | 22,856 | 26 | 822.2 | 2% |
| Rusk | 13 | 1,195 | 1 | 91.7 | 8% |
| Sauk | 338 | 11,681 | 3 | 531.5 | 1% |
| Sawyer | 31 | 2,444 | 0 | 189.4 | 0% |
| Shawano | 143 | 5,792 | 0 | 348.7 | 0% |
| Sheboygan | 573 | 14,507 | 5 | 497.4 | 1% |
| St. Croix | 433 | 9,802 | 2 | 492.5 | 0% |
| Taylor | 44 | 1,643 | 0 | 216.2 | 0% |
| Trempealeau | 285 | 4,591 | 1 | 968.1 | 0% |
| Vernon | 54 | 3,724 | 0 | 177.0 | 0% |
| Vilas | 28 | 2,041 | 0 | 129.7 | 0% |
| Walworth | 1,142 | 14,195 | 21 | 1108.6 | 2% |
| Washburn | 17 | 1,711 | 0 | 108.4 | 0% |
| Washington | 791 | 13,235 | 22 | 588.0 | 3% |
| Waukesha | 3,380 | 46,309 | 51 | 847.4 | 2% |
| Waupaca | 344 | 7,177 | 14 | 668.7 | 4% |
| Waushara | 95 | 4,973 | 0 | 393.9 | 0% |
| Winnebago | 997 | 24,367 | 16 | 586.7 | 2% |
| Wood | 204 | 8,449 | 1 | 278.4 | 0% |
| Total | 52,108 | 867,602 | 919 | 901.8 | 2% |
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Good morning Realizing that I have no idea unless I track this every day if there is little change or great change in the number of people infected in a county It would be useful to have two additional columns and that is yesterdays number and maybe a week ago number That would provide some indication of infection presence etc Thanks for all that you are doing Peace