Jeramey Jannene
WI Daily

Milwaukee County Has Fallen to 9th Worst All-Time COVID Outbreak

Wisconsin's most populous county long had the worst per-capita outbreak.

By - Oct 9th, 2020 03:45 pm
COVID-19. Credit: U.S. Army.

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

COVID-19 testing totals are increasing towards record levels in Wisconsin. But case and hospitalization totals are already there.

The Department of Health Services reported 2,988 positive cases Friday afternoon, just 12 shy of the state’s second-ever 3,000 case day. The first came Thursday.

A record 33,990 cases have been reported in the past 14 days, with 16,912 in the past seven days. The seven-day case high before September, and now October, brought a surge of cases with it was 6,512 for the week of July 26th.

The record level of new cases comes as a lagging indicator, the number of people hospitalized, continues to set record highs. That has prompted state officials to open a never-used alternative care facility constructed in the Wisconsin State Fair Park.

Friday’s results come from 14,822 processed tests. The seven-day testing total has reached 90,003, up from 52,830 a month ago. A high of 99,920 tests was recorded for the week ending August 6th.

The increase in testing hasn’t resulted in the percentage of people testing positive falling. The seven and 14-day positive case rates now stand at 18.79% and 20.11%, the latter of which is an all-time high. The figure measures the percentage of tests that indicate a new case of COVID-19. The 14-day figure hit a low of 2.69% 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.

The Wisconsin Hospital Association reported 907 active hospitalizations on Thursday afternoon, the highest total since the pandemic began. The total is up 34 from Wednesday and 238 from a week ago. The number of people in an intensive care unit with the disease, 228, is also at a record high. An update on active hospitalizations was not available from DHS or WHA by the time of publication on Friday.

DHS reports that 138 people were newly hospitalized in the past 24 hours, bringing the outbreak total to 8,199. The one-day total is the second-highest on record.

A Milwaukee County official said the number of people hospitalized in the county with the disease has doubled in the past three weeks, but area hospitals still have capacity for the time being. But that’s not true for other state hospitals, particularly in the Fox Valley and other northeast Wisconsin counties. Patients are expected to be transported from those areas to the alternative care facility in West Allis.

The ultimate lagging indicator of the disease’s spread, death, is increasing in absolute numbers.

DHS reported 16 new deaths, bringing the statewide total to 1,440. There have been 548 deaths recorded in Milwaukee County. An average of 8.57 deaths per day have been reported across the state over the past 30 days. A month ago the rolling average was 6.17.

As evidence of the outstate spread, in just the past month Milwaukee has gone from having a runaway lead on the worst all-time per-capita spread of the disease to the ninth-worst. And it’s done so while the spread of the disease accelerated in the county.

Brown County has recorded 4,373.7 cases per 100,000 residents (up from 4,291.9). Forest County has record 3,898.9 cases per 100,000 residents (up from 3,855.4). Kewaunee County has recorded 3,788 cases per 100,000 residents (up from 3,691.1). Oconto County has recorded 3,780.1 cases per 100,000 residents (up from 3,616.8). Shawano County has recorded 3,574.8 cases per 100,000 residents (up from 3,429.5).

Winnebago (3,475.8), Calumet (3,440.4) and Outagamie (3,381.4) counties are the remaining counties leading Milwaukee.

According to DHS data, 3,350.7 out of every 100,000 Milwaukee County residents have tested positive for COVID-19 (up from 3,311.5) since the outbreak began.

The statewide average of cases per 100,000 residents rose to 2,505 (up from 2,453.4). Wisconsin has recorded a per-capita rate of 566.8 per 100,000 in the past two weeks according to the DHS activity level report released Wednesday.

Charts and Maps

Data from DHS

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

Cases and deaths by county

Number of confirmed cases Number of negatives* Number of probable cases Number of deaths** Cases per 100,000 people (counties) Deaths per 100,000 people (counties) Case fatality percentage****
Adams 10/9/2020 290 4,411 19 4 1,415.00 19.5 1.40%
Ashland 10/9/2020 180 3,335 10 2 1,134.70 12.6 1.10%
Barron 10/9/2020 575 9,300 26 6 1,253.30 13.1 1.00%
Bayfield 10/9/2020 136 3,336 9 1 894.5 6.6 0.70%
Brown 10/9/2020 11,386 73,134 224 74 4,373.70 28.4 0.60%
Buffalo 10/9/2020 169 2,808 4 2 1,251.00 14.8 1.20%
Burnett 10/9/2020 239 3,091 14 4 1,547.20 25.9 1.70%
Calumet 10/9/2020 1,771 11,177 53 6 3,440.40 11.7 0.30%
Chippewa 10/9/2020 763 16,066 27 0 1,188.10 0 0.00%
Clark 10/9/2020 524 6,087 44 9 1,508.30 25.9 1.70%
Columbia 10/9/2020 1,019 16,782 57 3 1,783.70 5.3 0.30%
Crawford 10/9/2020 227 4,623 6 0 1,371.20 0 0.00%
Dane 10/9/2020 11,035 207,665 479 43 2,088.00 8.1 0.40%
Dodge 10/9/2020 2,428 24,791 55 19 2,721.80 21.3 0.80%
Door 10/9/2020 491 7,560 26 4 1,750.40 14.3 0.80%
Douglas 10/9/2020 604 8,790 5 0 1,376.70 0 0.00%
Dunn 10/9/2020 745 8,682 28 1 1,663.80 2.2 0.10%
Eau Claire 10/9/2020 2,308 24,857 22 8 2,243.10 7.8 0.30%
Florence 10/9/2020 122 958 0 2 2,759.60 45.2 1.60%
Fond du Lac 10/9/2020 2,747 25,411 77 15 2,657.40 14.5 0.50%
Forest 10/9/2020 358 2,011 6 7 3,898.90 76.2 2.00%
Grant 10/9/2020 1,323 14,037 53 19 2,526.10 36.3 1.40%
Green 10/9/2020 656 9,044 23 3 1,779.50 8.1 0.50%
Green Lake 10/9/2020 419 4,366 68 1 2,195.10 5.2 0.20%
Iowa 10/9/2020 264 6,150 25 0 1,109.30 0 0.00%
Iron 10/9/2020 149 1,591 8 1 2,549.60 17.1 0.70%
Jackson 10/9/2020 202 6,766 5 1 978.5 4.8 0.50%
Jefferson 10/9/2020 1,803 20,864 77 8 2,129.30 9.4 0.40%
Juneau 10/9/2020 500 9,674 4 2 1,858.20 7.4 0.40%
Kenosha 10/9/2020 3,916 40,327 446 68 2,327.80 40.4 1.70%
Kewaunee 10/9/2020 782 4,504 17 2 3,788.00 9.7 0.30%
La Crosse 10/9/2020 3,486 28,692 149 8 2,945.90 6.8 0.20%
Lafayette 10/9/2020 387 3,879 8 0 2,292.20 0 0.00%
Langlade 10/9/2020 401 3,893 2 2 2,027.60 10.1 0.50%
Lincoln 10/9/2020 386 5,660 15 3 1,357.10 10.5 0.80%
Manitowoc 10/9/2020 1,618 15,862 166 5 2,016.10 6.2 0.30%
Marathon 10/9/2020 2,332 22,319 138 27 1,730.70 20 1.20%
Marinette 10/9/2020 1,203 10,786 60 9 2,938.60 22 0.70%
Marquette 10/9/2020 383 3,659 13 1 2,490.60 6.5 0.30%
Menominee 10/9/2020 144 2,873 0 0 3,286.20 0 0.00%
Milwaukee 10/9/2020 31,647 268,821 1,978 548 3,350.70 58 1.70%
Monroe 10/9/2020 733 11,131 17 3 1,593.50 6.5 0.40%
Oconto 10/9/2020 1,435 9,895 70 4 3,780.10 10.5 0.30%
Oneida 10/9/2020 694 9,517 8 4 1,932.40 11.1 0.60%
Outagamie 10/9/2020 6,215 42,926 293 36 3,381.40 19.6 0.60%
Ozaukee 10/9/2020 1,580 19,485 111 21 1,788.10 23.8 1.30%
Pepin 10/9/2020 75 1,604 3 0 1,020.50 0 0.00%
Pierce 10/9/2020 511 8,581 252 7 1,227.30 16.8 1.40%
Polk 10/9/2020 311 9,679 12 2 708.4 4.6 0.60%
Portage 10/9/2020 1,797 14,208 51 13 2,541.00 18.4 0.70%
Price 10/9/2020 219 2,995 3 0 1,586.00 0 0.00%
Racine 10/9/2020 5,486 71,139 550 99 2,810.40 50.7 1.80%
Richland 10/9/2020 276 6,009 13 4 1,558.30 22.6 1.40%
Rock 10/9/2020 3,109 38,736 202 34 1,939.90 21.2 1.10%
Rusk 10/9/2020 86 2,402 8 1 591.7 6.9 1.20%
Sauk 10/9/2020 1,151 20,580 61 5 1,836.10 8 0.40%
Sawyer 10/9/2020 273 4,855 0 1 1,647.70 6 0.40%
Shawano 10/9/2020 1,475 10,397 9 7 3,574.90 17 0.50%
Sheboygan 10/9/2020 2,465 25,390 86 20 2,152.60 17.5 0.80%
St. Croix 10/9/2020 1,155 17,915 73 9 1,310.00 10.2 0.80%
Taylor 10/9/2020 273 3,177 4 4 1,326.50 19.4 1.50%
Trempealeau 10/9/2020 774 6,921 20 2 2,638.80 6.8 0.30%
Vernon 10/9/2020 332 7,010 5 1 1,096.20 3.3 0.30%
Vilas 10/9/2020 328 4,954 13 1 1,514.60 4.6 0.30%
Walworth 10/9/2020 2,850 25,159 208 36 2,777.40 35.1 1.30%
Washburn 10/9/2020 144 3,179 7 2 908.3 12.6 1.40%
Washington 10/9/2020 3,155 26,583 98 37 2,346.00 27.5 1.20%
Waukesha 10/9/2020 8,775 87,512 790 97 2,201.20 24.3 1.10%
Waupaca 10/9/2020 1,518 11,072 138 22 2,934.40 42.5 1.40%
Waushara 10/9/2020 561 7,324 7 3 2,308.80 12.3 0.50%
Winnebago 10/9/2020 5,886 43,389 197 40 3,475.80 23.6 0.70%
Wood 10/9/2020 1,058 16,296 58 7 1,429.20 9.5 0.70%

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