Record Day for COVID-19 Cases, Hospitalizations and Deaths

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

There is no objective criteria for a bad COVID-19 day, but by virtually any metric Tuesday’s data release shows things are as bad as they ever have been in Wisconsin.

The state set one-day records for cases, new hospitalizations and deaths.

Let’s start at the tip of the iceberg – new cases.

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services reported 3,279 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday afternoon. That’s a record.

Tuesday’s results come from 14,541 processed tests. The seven-day testing total grew to 93,930, up from 55,010 a month ago. A high of 99,920 tests was recorded for the week ending August 6th.

A total of 19,092 cases were recorded in the past seven days, a new high. 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 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 20.33% and 19.88%. 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.

“Our current surge in cases will lead to more hospitalizations, which is why we must be prepared,” said DHS Secretary-designee Andrea Palm during a press briefing Tuesday. She said the alternative care facility would open Wednesday at Wisconsin State Fair Park with immediate capacity for 50 patients. Those patients are expected to come from outside of the Milwaukee area.

And while Palm is predicting a surge of hospitalizations in the future, Wisconsin is already a surge of hospitalizations related to past cases.

DHS reports that 147 people were newly hospitalized in the past 24 hours, bringing the outbreak total to 8,601. The total is a one-day record.

The Wisconsin Hospital Association reported 959 active hospitalizations on Tuesday afternoon, a record high. The total is up nine from Monday and up 106 from a week ago. Thirty days ago the figure stood at 341.

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

DHS reported a record 34 new deaths, bringing the statewide total to 1,508. There have been 551 deaths recorded in Milwaukee County. An average of 9.93 deaths per day have been reported across the state over the past 30 days. A month ago the rolling average was 5.73.

As evidence of the outstate spread, in just the past month Milwaukee County has gone from having a runaway lead on the worst all-time per-capita spread of the disease to the 10th-worst. And it’s done so while the spread of the disease accelerated in the county.

Brown County has recorded 4,626.8 cases per 100,000 residents (up from 4,534.3). Oconto County has recorded 4,172.6 cases per 100,000 residents (up from 4,077.8). Forest County has record 4,084.1 cases per 100,000 residents (up from 4,040.5). Kewaunee County has recorded 4,059.3 cases per 100,000 residents (up from 3,976.9).

Shawano, Menominee, Calumet, Winnebago and Outagamie counties are the remaining counties leading Milwaukee.

According to DHS data, 3,499.1 out of every 100,000 Milwaukee County residents have tested positive for COVID-19 (up from 3,442.5) since the outbreak began.

The statewide average of cases per 100,000 residents rose to 2,689.3 (up from 2,632.6). 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