Record 1,017 People Actively Hospitalized With COVID-19

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services reported 3,107 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday afternoon, the third-highest total on record.

Wednesday’s results come from 14,542 processed tests. The seven-day testing total grew to 94,965, up from 63,193 a month ago. A high of 99,920 tests was recorded for the week ending August 6th.

A total of 19,880 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 20.93% and 20.01%. 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.

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

The Wisconsin Hospital Association reported 1,017 active hospitalizations on Wednesday afternoon, a record high. The total is up 58 from Tuesday and up 144 from a week ago. Thirty days ago the figure stood at 343.

DHS reports that 153 people were newly hospitalized in the past 24 hours, bringing the outbreak total to 8,754. The total is a one-day record.

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

DHS reported a record 28 new deaths, bringing the statewide total to 1,536. There have been 554 deaths recorded in Milwaukee County. An average of 10.87 deaths per day have been reported across the state over the past 30 days, the highest average on record. A month ago the rolling average was 6.03.

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 4,694.1 cases per 100,000 residents (up from 4,626.8). Oconto County has recorded 4,233.2 cases per 100,000 residents (up from 4,172.6). Forest County has record 4,182.1 cases per 100,000 residents (up from 4,084.1).

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

According to DHS data, 3,550.3 out of every 100,000 Milwaukee County residents have tested positive for COVID-19 (up from 3,499.1) since the outbreak began.

The statewide average of cases per 100,000 residents rose to 2,743.1 (up from 2,689.3). 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 last Wednesday.

Charts and Maps

Confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths by gender

Confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths by race

Confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths by ethnicity

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	10/14/2020	334	4,604	20	4	1,629.70	19.5	1.20%
Ashland	10/14/2020	208	3,549	9	3	1,311.20	18.9	1.40%
Barron	10/14/2020	678	10,225	29	6	1,477.80	13.1	0.90%
Bayfield	10/14/2020	161	3,601	9	1	1,058.90	6.6	0.60%
Brown	10/14/2020	12,220	79,159	242	79	4,694.10	30.3	0.60%
Buffalo	10/14/2020	185	2,877	4	2	1,369.50	14.8	1.10%
Burnett	10/14/2020	250	3,128	15	4	1,618.40	25.9	1.60%
Calumet	10/14/2020	2,040	11,697	61	10	3,963.00	19.4	0.50%
Chippewa	10/14/2020	887	16,653	29	1	1,381.20	1.6	0.10%
Clark	10/14/2020	578	6,257	50	9	1,663.70	25.9	1.60%
Columbia	10/14/2020	1,229	17,624	58	4	2,151.30	7	0.30%
Crawford	10/14/2020	261	4,731	7	0	1,576.60	0	0.00%
Dane	10/14/2020	11,855	211,170	515	46	2,243.20	8.7	0.40%
Dodge	10/14/2020	2,733	25,258	77	19	3,063.70	21.3	0.70%
Door	10/14/2020	562	7,934	31	4	2,003.50	14.3	0.70%
Douglas	10/14/2020	648	9,129	6	1	1,477.00	2.3	0.20%
Dunn	10/14/2020	791	9,174	35	1	1,766.50	2.2	0.10%
Eau Claire	10/14/2020	2,471	26,464	21	9	2,401.50	8.7	0.40%
Florence	10/14/2020	143	997	2	4	3,234.60	90.5	2.80%
Fond du Lac	10/14/2020	3,135	26,491	86	16	3,032.70	15.5	0.50%
Forest	10/14/2020	384	2,171	6	9	4,182.10	98	2.30%
Grant	10/14/2020	1,479	14,594	56	23	2,823.90	43.9	1.60%
Green	10/14/2020	742	9,461	20	3	2,012.80	8.1	0.40%
Green Lake	10/14/2020	521	4,584	80	2	2,729.50	10.5	0.40%
Iowa	10/14/2020	321	6,420	26	0	1,348.80	0	0.00%
Iron	10/14/2020	159	1,620	14	1	2,720.70	17.1	0.60%
Jackson	10/14/2020	225	6,857	5	1	1,089.90	4.8	0.40%
Jefferson	10/14/2020	2,050	21,884	78	9	2,421.00	10.6	0.40%
Juneau	10/14/2020	555	9,921	4	3	2,062.60	11.1	0.50%
Kenosha	10/14/2020	4,140	41,038	449	69	2,460.90	41	1.70%
Kewaunee	10/14/2020	841	4,665	21	4	4,073.80	19.4	0.50%
La Crosse	10/14/2020	3,605	28,946	150	11	3,046.50	9.3	0.30%
Lafayette	10/14/2020	429	4,026	9	0	2,541.00	0	0.00%
Langlade	10/14/2020	566	4,170	5	4	2,861.90	20.2	0.70%
Lincoln	10/14/2020	462	6,053	16	4	1,624.40	14.1	0.90%
Manitowoc	10/14/2020	1,890	16,319	195	7	2,355.00	8.7	0.40%
Marathon	10/14/2020	2,899	22,887	175	31	2,151.50	23	1.10%
Marinette	10/14/2020	1,330	11,126	75	9	3,248.80	22	0.70%
Marquette	10/14/2020	455	3,770	14	2	2,958.80	13	0.40%
Menominee	10/14/2020	183	2,954	0	0	4,176.20	0	0.00%
Milwaukee	10/14/2020	33,532	275,663	2,064	554	3,550.30	58.7	1.70%
Monroe	10/14/2020	813	11,435	18	3	1,767.50	6.5	0.40%
Oconto	10/14/2020	1,607	10,464	73	6	4,233.20	15.8	0.40%
Oneida	10/14/2020	805	10,078	12	5	2,241.50	13.9	0.60%
Outagamie	10/14/2020	6,928	44,399	329	46	3,769.30	25	0.70%
Ozaukee	10/14/2020	1,684	20,211	151	21	1,905.80	23.8	1.20%
Pepin	10/14/2020	81	1,635	2	0	1,102.20	0	0.00%
Pierce	10/14/2020	548	8,934	250	7	1,316.20	16.8	1.30%
Polk	10/14/2020	363	10,059	13	2	826.9	4.6	0.60%
Portage	10/14/2020	2,004	15,317	52	14	2,833.80	19.8	0.70%
Price	10/14/2020	250	3,275	7	0	1,810.50	0	0.00%
Racine	10/14/2020	5,840	71,827	595	101	2,991.80	51.7	1.70%
Richland	10/14/2020	332	6,310	13	6	1,874.40	33.9	1.80%
Rock	10/14/2020	3,538	39,465	209	37	2,207.60	23.1	1.00%
Rusk	10/14/2020	103	2,433	8	1	708.7	6.9	1.00%
Sauk	10/14/2020	1,328	21,424	61	6	2,118.50	9.6	0.50%
Sawyer	10/14/2020	293	5,001	0	1	1,768.40	6	0.30%
Shawano	10/14/2020	1,720	10,846	10	8	4,168.70	19.4	0.50%
Sheboygan	10/14/2020	2,710	26,317	95	20	2,366.50	17.5	0.70%
St. Croix	10/14/2020	1,305	18,674	80	9	1,480.10	10.2	0.70%
Taylor	10/14/2020	309	3,302	6	6	1,501.50	29.2	1.90%
Trempealeau	10/14/2020	816	6,923	19	2	2,781.90	6.8	0.20%
Vernon	10/14/2020	394	7,637	5	3	1,300.90	9.9	0.80%
Vilas	10/14/2020	367	4,986	18	3	1,694.70	13.9	0.80%
Walworth	10/14/2020	2,959	25,588	214	36	2,883.60	35.1	1.20%
Washburn	10/14/2020	161	3,297	9	2	1,015.60	12.6	1.20%
Washington	10/14/2020	3,472	27,163	151	40	2,581.70	29.7	1.20%
Waukesha	10/14/2020	9,532	90,473	847	98	2,391.10	24.6	1.00%
Waupaca	10/14/2020	1,741	11,363	140	27	3,365.50	52.2	1.60%
Waushara	10/14/2020	653	7,532	7	3	2,687.50	12.3	0.50%
Winnebago	10/14/2020	6,603	45,240	275	46	3,899.20	27.2	0.70%
Wood	10/14/2020	1,182	16,930	67	8	1,596.70	10.8	0.70%