Record One-Day COVID-19 Death Total in Wisconsin

First cases hit a record high, then active hospitalizations hit a record high, now the one-day death total from COVID-19 has hit a record high.

On Wednesday afternoon the Department of Health Services reported 27 deaths from the disease.

Indicators show that the total could be a harbinger of what’s to come.

The Wisconsin Hospital Association reported a record 683 active COVID-19-positive hospitalizations on Wednesday afternoon. The figure is up 37 from Tuesday and 174 from a week ago.

DHS reports that 91 people were newly hospitalized in the past 24 hours, bringing the outbreak total to 7,300. The one-day total is a record.

DHS reported 2,319 newly-confirmed COVID-19 cases on Wednesday.

The new cases come from 11,792 processed tests. But the number of tests processed in the past seven days fell to 79,404, the lowest total in a week. A high of 99,920 was recorded for the week ending August 6th.

While testing isn’t at a record high, cases are. The seven-day case total climbed to 16,342. The high before September brought a surge of cases with it was 6,512 for the week of July 26th.

The seven- and 14-day positive case rates now stand at 20.58 and 18.77 percent, both of which are all-time highs. The figure is a measure of the percentage of tests that indicate a new case of the disease. The 14-day figure hit a low of 2.69 percent on June 19th.

Officials have looked for the positive case rate to trend downward to indicate a slowing spread of disease and sufficient testing. Multiple public health benchmarks call for the positive case figure to be sustained under five percent.

DHS reported 27 deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the statewide total to 1,327. It’s the highest one-day total since the pandemic began. There have been 532 deaths recorded in Milwaukee County. An average of 6.83 deaths per day have been reported across the state over the past 30 days.

Brown County has recorded 3,663.1 cases per 100,000 residents (up from 3,542.8). Forest County has record 3,201.9 cases per 100,000 residents. According to DHS data, 3,086.3 out of every 100,000 Milwaukee County residents have tested positive for COVID-19 (up from 3,047.5) since the outbreak began.

Kewaunee (2,916.1), Outagamie (2,655.6), La Crosse (2,645.1), Walworth (2,562), Racine (2,549.1) and Oconto (2,544.6) are the only other counties with more than 2,500 cases per 100,000 residents.

The statewide average of cases per 100,000 residents rose to 2,115.1 (up from 2,075). Wisconsin has recorded a per-capita rate of 511.4 per 100,000 in the past two weeks according to the DHS activity level report released Wednesday.

A total of 122,274 residents have tested positive for the disease.

Charts and Maps

Percent of COVID-19 cases resulting in hospitalization within age group

Confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths by gender