Record COVID-19 Cases As a Result of Reporting Fix

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

On paper, Wisconsin set a record for new COVID-19 cases on Friday. The Department of Health Services reported 1,498 cases, besting the previous high of 1,165 set August 8th.

But it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison to past results says DHS.

“The negative and positive case numbers look higher today due to problems with the laboratory test reporting that have now been fixed. Remember to look at 7 day trends to get the full picture of how the state is doing,” said the department in tweeting the Friday afternoon, 24-hour data release.

The seven-day case total jumped from 4,718 to 5,373. When the case high was set it stood at 5,931. But testing was much higher than, 96,931 cases over seven days instead of Friday’s rolling total of 59,769.

Testing and cases have both fallen in recent weeks, with testing falling faster than cases causing a spike in the positive case rate (the percentage of tests indicating a new case). State health officials expressed concern over declines in testing Thursday and encouraged people to get tested to avoid unwittingly spreading the disease.

DHS reported 11,702 processed tests Friday, a number it warned is inflated.

The seven- and 14-day positive case rates, a measure of the percentage of tests confirming a new case of the disease, stand at 9.14 and 8.76 percent. Both are up from a week ago. Officials have looked for them to trend downward and multiple public health benchmarks call for them to be sustained under five percent.

“I think we certainly want to see a percent positive rate below five percent, and the closer to zero the better,” said DHS Secretary-designee Andrea Palm on Thursday. DHS medical officer Dr. Ryan Westergaard stressed that the metric is important, but individuals should be looking at multiple indicators to gauge the state’s fight against the disease.

A total of 302 Wisconsin residents are currently hospitalized with a confirmed case of the disease according to the Wisconsin Hospital Association COVID-19 dashboard. The figure is up nine from yesterday and down seven from a week ago. DHS reports that 52 people were newly hospitalized in the past 24 hours, bringing the outbreak total to 5,998.

Seven deaths were reported by DHS, bringing the statewide total to 1,153, 496 of which have been in Milwaukee County. An average of 6.1 deaths per day have been reported over the past 30 days.

According to DHS data, 2,604.7 out of every 100,000 Milwaukee County residents have tested positive for COVID-19 (up from 2,581.3) since the outbreak began. Iron County, the northern-most county that borders Michigan, has 2,224.5 cases per 100,000 residents (up from2,190.3). Brown County has recorded 2,185.3 cases per 100,000 residents (up from 2,131.9). Racine County has recorded 2,115.2 cases per 100,000 residents (up from 2,081.4).

Kenosha (1,797.5), Walworth (1,720), Marinette (1,531.6), Trempealeau (1,489.6), Waukesha (1,443.4), Waupaca (1,418.9), Dodge (1,383.2) and Washington (1,291.6) are the only other counties with more than 1,200 cases per 100,000 residents.

The statewide average of cases per 100,000 residents rose to 1,372.7 (up from 1,346.7 yesterday). Wisconsin has recorded a per-capita rate of 170 per 100,000 in the past two weeks according to the DHS activity level report released Wednesday.

A total of 79,354 residents have tested positive for the disease.

Charts and Maps

Data from DHS.

Percent of COVID-19 cases by hospitalization status

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.