Jeramey Jannene
WI Daily

43% of Wisconsin’s COVID-19 Cases Have Come in Past Month

Menominee County now has worst outbreak in state, Milwaukee County falls to 12th all time.

By - Oct 20th, 2020 04:23 pm
COVID-19. Credit: U.S. Army.

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

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services reported a record 4,591 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours on Tuesday afternoon. But state health officials urge caution in looking only at that number and not examining the bigger picture.

“This count reflects some of the backlog and positive cases that accumulated as the Wisconsin Electronic Disease Surveillance System underwent a routine upgrade and enhancement over the weekend,” said DHS Secretary-designee Andrea Palm during a press briefing Tuesday. Health departments were not able to enter new cases over the weekend, causing a backup. “Our historical data and case numbers may be higher over the next few days.” A total of 13,661 processed tests were reported, a total lower than that reported the same day last week.

Things are worse than they ever have been with Wisconsin’s COVID-19 outbreak said Palm.

The state is now averaging over 3,200 cases per day over the past week, up from 740 cases per day two months ago. “Forty-three percent of our total cases have come within the last month,” said Palm. A total of 23,011 cases have been reported in the past week, with a total of 178,482 since the pandemic began.

A figure that isn’t delayed – the number of people actively hospitalized – continues to hit new highs. The Wisconsin Hospital Association reported 1,192 active hospitalizations on Tuesday. The figure is up 20 from Monday and up 233 from a week ago. Thirty days ago the figure stood at 433. DHS reported a record 218 were newly hospitalized in the past 24 hours. Palm said the hospitalization figures will continue to go higher as they lag newly reported cases.

Deaths also continue to climb. At no point in the outbreak have a greater number of people died with a confirmed case of the disease each day.

DHS reported 33 new deaths, bringing the statewide total to 1,633. There have been 557 deaths recorded in Milwaukee County. An average of 13.03 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 5.43.

The State Fair Park alternative care facility that opened last week is still empty according to a DHS dashboard. Officials said last week they were fielding calls from hospitals trying to send patients. But Palm said Tuesday that the hospitals are first exhausting their shared resource plans, including temporary conversion of existing spaces, relocating beds and redirecting patients to other hospitals. “It’s a very dynamic and fluid situation,” she said. “What you are seeing them do right now is deploy those plans.”

“What we heard from them is they needed us to open [the alternative care facility], they wanted us to open it, we wanted it to be open for them should they need it,” said Palm.

Palm and Governor Tony Evers called on people to stay home, cancel gatherings and wear masks when outside the home to slow the disease’s spread.

Menominee County has recorded 5,454.1 cases per 100,000 residents (up from 4,997.7). Brown County has recorded 5,153.1 cases per 100,000 residents (up from 5,090.1). Shawano, Oconto, Winnebago, Kewaunee, Calumet, Forest, Outagamie, Waupaca and Florence counties are the remaining counties leading Milwaukee.

According to DHS data, 3,817.9 out of every 100,000 Milwaukee County residents have tested positive for COVID-19 since the outbreak began (up from 3,730.6).

The statewide average of cases per 100,000 residents rose to 3,087.4 (up from 3,007.9). Wisconsin has recorded a per-capita rate of 627.9 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 † Number of probable deaths ‡ Cases per 100,000 people (counties) Deaths per 100,000 people (counties)
Case fatality percentage ††
Adams 10/20/2020 414 4,803 22 4 0 2,020.00 19.5 1.00%
Ashland 10/20/2020 239 3,864 10 3 0 1,506.70 18.9 1.30%
Barron 10/20/2020 827 11,393 31 6 0 1,802.50 13.1 0.70%
Bayfield 10/20/2020 184 3,765 10 1 0 1,210.20 6.6 0.50%
Brown 10/20/2020 13,415 89,259 251 86 1 5,153.10 33 0.60%
Buffalo 10/20/2020 213 3,010 6 2 0 1,576.70 14.8 0.90%
Burnett 10/20/2020 277 3,477 13 6 0 1,793.20 38.8 2.20%
Calumet 10/20/2020 2,327 12,677 59 11 0 4,520.60 21.4 0.50%
Chippewa 10/20/2020 1,130 17,583 29 6 0 1,759.60 9.3 0.50%
Clark 10/20/2020 685 6,521 60 12 2 1,971.70 34.5 1.80%
Columbia 10/20/2020 1,504 18,510 60 4 0 2,632.70 7 0.30%
Crawford 10/20/2020 297 4,921 7 0 0 1,794.00 0 0.00%
Dane 10/20/2020 12,821 229,152 541 46 1 2,425.90 8.7 0.40%
Dodge 10/20/2020 3,150 27,121 120 22 0 3,531.20 24.7 0.70%
Door 10/20/2020 651 8,673 44 4 0 2,320.80 14.3 0.60%
Douglas 10/20/2020 701 9,612 7 1 0 1,597.80 2.3 0.10%
Dunn 10/20/2020 884 10,580 38 1 0 1,974.20 2.2 0.10%
Eau Claire 10/20/2020 2,736 27,869 25 11 0 2,659.10 10.7 0.40%
Florence 10/20/2020 172 1,094 4 4 0 3,890.50 90.5 2.30%
Fond du Lac 10/20/2020 3,688 27,631 110 17 0 3,567.70 16.4 0.50%
Forest 10/20/2020 401 2,312 14 10 0 4,367.20 108.9 2.50%
Grant 10/20/2020 1,623 16,036 64 25 0 3,098.90 47.7 1.50%
Green 10/20/2020 828 9,879 20 4 0 2,246.10 10.9 0.50%
Green Lake 10/20/2020 618 4,909 85 2 0 3,237.60 10.5 0.30%
Iowa 10/20/2020 385 6,771 26 1 0 1,617.70 4.2 0.30%
Iron 10/20/2020 170 1,691 19 1 0 2,909.00 17.1 0.60%
Jackson 10/20/2020 299 7,079 5 1 0 1,448.40 4.8 0.30%
Jefferson 10/20/2020 2,308 23,160 80 9 0 2,725.70 10.6 0.40%
Juneau 10/20/2020 675 10,377 4 4 0 2,508.50 14.9 0.60%
Kenosha 10/20/2020 4,479 45,845 485 71 1 2,662.40 42.2 1.60%
Kewaunee 10/20/2020 937 4,895 26 5 0 4,538.80 24.2 0.50%
La Crosse 10/20/2020 3,868 30,854 154 15 0 3,268.70 12.7 0.40%
Lafayette 10/20/2020 466 4,212 8 1 0 2,760.20 5.9 0.20%
Langlade 10/20/2020 704 4,474 18 8 0 3,559.70 40.5 1.10%
Lincoln 10/20/2020 603 6,429 24 5 0 2,120.10 17.6 0.80%
Manitowoc 10/20/2020 2,258 18,272 257 7 1 2,813.60 8.7 0.30%
Marathon 10/20/2020 3,531 28,848 232 38 2 2,620.60 28.2 1.10%
Marinette 10/20/2020 1,478 11,568 89 11 0 3,610.30 26.9 0.70%
Marquette 10/20/2020 528 3,969 17 2 0 3,433.50 13 0.40%
Menominee 10/20/2020 239 3,101 0 0 0 5,454.10 0 0.00%
Milwaukee 10/20/2020 36,059 299,961 2,148 557 3 3,817.90 59 1.50%
Monroe 10/20/2020 960 11,979 18 3 0 2,087.00 6.5 0.30%
Oconto 10/20/2020 1,817 11,085 84 8 2 4,786.40 21.1 0.40%
Oneida 10/20/2020 967 10,793 17 6 0 2,692.60 16.7 0.60%
Outagamie 10/20/2020 8,026 51,909 347 51 0 4,366.70 27.7 0.60%
Ozaukee 10/20/2020 1,939 23,463 192 23 0 2,194.40 26 1.20%
Pepin 10/20/2020 93 1,712 3 0 0 1,265.50 0 0.00%
Pierce 10/20/2020 612 9,314 256 7 0 1,469.90 16.8 1.10%
Polk 10/20/2020 419 10,707 14 2 0 954.4 4.6 0.50%
Portage 10/20/2020 2,331 16,536 57 17 0 3,296.10 24 0.70%
Price 10/20/2020 293 3,446 9 0 0 2,122.00 0 0.00%
Racine 10/20/2020 6,454 75,374 633 102 2 3,306.30 52.3 1.60%
Richland 10/20/2020 390 6,647 13 6 0 2,201.90 33.9 1.50%
Rock 10/20/2020 4,191 45,071 222 39 1 2,615.00 24.3 0.90%
Rusk 10/20/2020 152 2,836 10 1 0 1,045.80 6.9 0.70%
Sauk 10/20/2020 1,485 23,670 62 6 0 2,369.00 9.6 0.40%
Sawyer 10/20/2020 349 5,203 2 1 0 2,106.30 6 0.30%
Shawano 10/20/2020 1,998 11,337 14 14 0 4,842.50 33.9 0.70%
Sheboygan 10/20/2020 3,839 27,992 103 20 0 3,352.40 17.5 0.50%
St. Croix 10/20/2020 1,467 19,749 88 9 0 1,663.90 10.2 0.60%
Taylor 10/20/2020 382 3,516 9 6 0 1,856.20 29.2 1.60%
Trempealeau 10/20/2020 896 7,690 19 2 0 3,054.70 6.8 0.20%
Vernon 10/20/2020 434 8,097 5 3 0 1,433.00 9.9 0.70%
Vilas 10/20/2020 448 5,456 19 3 0 2,068.70 13.9 0.70%
Walworth 10/20/2020 3,114 27,393 234 36 0 3,034.60 35.1 1.20%
Washburn 10/20/2020 200 3,545 9 2 0 1,261.60 12.6 1.00%
Washington 10/20/2020 3,918 31,789 223 41 0 2,913.30 30.5 1.00%
Waukesha 10/20/2020 10,576 99,573 875 106 2 2,653.00 26.6 1.00%
Waupaca 10/20/2020 2,031 12,961 161 32 1 3,926.10 61.9 1.60%
Waushara 10/20/2020 817 7,807 11 3 0 3,362.40 12.3 0.40%
Winnebago 10/20/2020 7,723 52,300 337 51 0 4,560.50 30.1 0.70%
Wood 10/20/2020 1,389 17,776 78 9 0 1,876.40 12.2 0.60%

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