Jeramey Jannene
WI Daily

DHS Reports A Record 48 Deaths

Surge in cases, then a surge in hospitalizations and now a surge in deaths.

By - Oct 21st, 2020 03:49 pm
COVID-19. Credit: U.S. Army.

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

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services reported a record 48 new deaths from COVID-19 on Wednesday afternoon. It eclipses the prior single-day high of 34 set October 13th.

A total of 1,681 Wisconsin residents have now died from the disease, with 72 percent of those deceased being aged 70 or older.

The 30-day average daily death toll has set a new record high of 14.57, up from 5.67 a month ago.

The record totals and average come after another lagging indicator of the disease’s spread, hospitalizations, has set repeated highs.

The Wisconsin Hospital Association reported 1,190 active hospitalizations on Wednesday. The figure is down two from Tuesday’s record high and up 173 from a week ago. Thirty days ago the figure stood at 474. DHS reported 167 people were newly hospitalized in the past 24 hours.

DHS reported 4,205 cases on Wednesday, the second-highest one day total on record. The data, DHS officials warned, could be inflated by a weekend system outage that health departments are catching up from. The state has averaged 3,444 cases per day over the past week.

DHS Secretary-designee Andrea Palm predicted Tuesday that the surge in cases would cause future surges in hospitalizations and deaths.

Wednesday’s new cases come from 9,886 processed tests.

One thing that has changed as the outbreak spreads across the state is Milwaukee County’s place in different state rankings. Through much of the summer, Milwaukee accounted for almost half of all deaths. Now it’s down to 33 percent. The state’s most populous county accounted for only three of the 48 deaths reported Wednesday.

Milwaukee County has also gone from having the worst per-capita outbreak on a case basis to the 12th worst.

Menominee County has recorded 5,750.8 cases per 100,000 residents (up from 5,454.1). Brown County has recorded 5,241.4 cases per 100,000 residents (up from 5,153.1). Shawano, Oconto, Kewaunee, Winnebago, Calumet, Forest, Outagamie, Florence and Waupaca counties are the remaining counties leading Milwaukee.

According to DHS data, 3,886.4 out of every 100,000 Milwaukee County residents have tested positive for COVID-19 since the outbreak began (up from 3,817.9).

The statewide average of cases per 100,000 residents rose to 3,160.1 (up from 3,087.4). 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 last 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 10/21/2020 425 4,827 23 4 0 2,073.70 19.5 0.90%
Ashland 10/21/2020 246 3,867 9 3 0 1,550.80 18.9 1.20%
Barron 10/21/2020 858 11,450 31 6 0 1,870.10 13.1 0.70%
Bayfield 10/21/2020 186 3,769 10 1 0 1,223.40 6.6 0.50%
Brown 10/21/2020 13,645 89,572 267 87 1 5,241.40 33.4 0.60%
Buffalo 10/21/2020 219 3,024 6 3 0 1,621.10 22.2 1.40%
Burnett 10/21/2020 282 3,497 13 6 0 1,825.60 38.8 2.10%
Calumet 10/21/2020 2,373 12,730 60 11 0 4,609.90 21.4 0.50%
Chippewa 10/21/2020 1,215 17,691 30 7 0 1,891.90 10.9 0.60%
Clark 10/21/2020 714 6,550 58 13 3 2,055.20 37.4 1.80%
Columbia 10/21/2020 1,534 18,556 61 4 0 2,685.20 7 0.30%
Crawford 10/21/2020 300 4,949 7 0 0 1,812.10 0 0.00%
Dane 10/21/2020 13,121 229,610 518 46 1 2,482.70 8.7 0.40%
Dodge 10/21/2020 3,280 27,271 122 23 0 3,676.90 25.8 0.70%
Door 10/21/2020 668 8,702 45 4 0 2,381.40 14.3 0.60%
Douglas 10/21/2020 707 9,644 7 1 0 1,611.40 2.3 0.10%
Dunn 10/21/2020 900 10,615 38 1 0 2,010.00 2.2 0.10%
Eau Claire 10/21/2020 2,783 27,993 25 12 0 2,704.80 11.7 0.40%
Florence 10/21/2020 186 1,091 4 6 0 4,207.20 135.7 3.20%
Fond du Lac 10/21/2020 3,741 27,697 119 19 0 3,618.90 18.4 0.50%
Forest 10/21/2020 413 2,329 15 10 0 4,497.90 108.9 2.40%
Grant 10/21/2020 1,646 16,110 61 27 0 3,142.80 51.6 1.60%
Green 10/21/2020 846 9,946 21 5 0 2,294.90 13.6 0.60%
Green Lake 10/21/2020 632 4,939 90 2 0 3,311.00 10.5 0.30%
Iowa 10/21/2020 401 6,819 26 1 0 1,684.90 4.2 0.20%
Iron 10/21/2020 170 1,695 20 1 0 2,909.00 17.1 0.60%
Jackson 10/21/2020 309 7,087 5 1 0 1,496.80 4.8 0.30%
Jefferson 10/21/2020 2,356 23,208 82 10 0 2,782.40 11.8 0.40%
Juneau 10/21/2020 693 10,416 4 4 0 2,575.40 14.9 0.60%
Kenosha 10/21/2020 4,557 46,139 491 74 2 2,708.80 44 1.60%
Kewaunee 10/21/2020 968 4,899 26 5 0 4,689.00 24.2 0.50%
La Crosse 10/21/2020 3,907 31,009 157 15 0 3,301.70 12.7 0.40%
Lafayette 10/21/2020 471 4,229 8 1 0 2,789.80 5.9 0.20%
Langlade 10/21/2020 754 4,484 21 8 0 3,812.50 40.5 1.10%
Lincoln 10/21/2020 617 6,465 32 5 0 2,169.30 17.6 0.80%
Manitowoc 10/21/2020 2,347 18,366 270 8 1 2,924.50 10 0.30%
Marathon 10/21/2020 3,699 28,996 260 39 2 2,745.30 28.9 1.10%
Marinette 10/21/2020 1,502 11,588 97 11 0 3,669.00 26.9 0.70%
Marquette 10/21/2020 537 3,971 24 2 0 3,492.00 13 0.40%
Menominee 10/21/2020 252 3,110 0 0 0 5,750.80 0 0.00%
Milwaukee 10/21/2020 36,706 300,596 2,184 559 3 3,886.40 59.2 1.50%
Monroe 10/21/2020 989 12,036 18 4 0 2,150.10 8.7 0.40%
Oconto 10/21/2020 1,877 11,137 82 8 2 4,944.40 21.1 0.40%
Oneida 10/21/2020 1,025 10,820 17 8 0 2,854.10 22.3 0.80%
Outagamie 10/21/2020 8,183 52,051 348 55 0 4,452.10 29.9 0.70%
Ozaukee 10/21/2020 1,992 23,526 195 23 0 2,254.40 26 1.20%
Pepin 10/21/2020 102 1,715 3 0 0 1,387.90 0 0.00%
Pierce 10/21/2020 619 9,335 223 7 0 1,486.70 16.8 1.10%
Polk 10/21/2020 445 10,751 14 2 0 1,013.70 4.6 0.40%
Portage 10/21/2020 2,397 16,613 60 18 0 3,389.50 25.5 0.80%
Price 10/21/2020 299 3,457 10 0 0 2,165.40 0 0.00%
Racine 10/21/2020 6,575 75,576 656 105 2 3,368.30 53.8 1.60%
Richland 10/21/2020 404 6,678 13 6 0 2,280.90 33.9 1.50%
Rock 10/21/2020 4,292 45,195 222 39 1 2,678.10 24.3 0.90%
Rusk 10/21/2020 160 2,848 11 1 0 1,100.90 6.9 0.60%
Sauk 10/21/2020 1,511 23,775 62 7 0 2,410.40 11.2 0.50%
Sawyer 10/21/2020 350 5,229 2 1 0 2,112.40 6 0.30%
Shawano 10/21/2020 2,093 11,414 14 15 0 5,072.70 36.4 0.70%
Sheboygan 10/21/2020 3,995 28,279 105 22 0 3,488.60 19.2 0.60%
St. Croix 10/21/2020 1,550 19,910 84 9 0 1,758.00 10.2 0.60%
Taylor 10/21/2020 395 3,530 9 7 0 1,919.30 34 1.80%
Trempealeau 10/21/2020 910 7,726 19 2 0 3,102.40 6.8 0.20%
Vernon 10/21/2020 450 8,170 5 3 0 1,485.80 9.9 0.70%
Vilas 10/21/2020 459 5,484 19 4 0 2,119.50 18.5 0.90%
Walworth 10/21/2020 3,157 27,441 235 37 0 3,076.50 36.1 1.20%
Washburn 10/21/2020 206 3,560 10 2 0 1,299.40 12.6 1.00%
Washington 10/21/2020 4,028 31,840 231 41 0 2,995.10 30.5 1.00%
Waukesha 10/21/2020 10,923 99,808 885 108 2 2,740.10 27.1 1.00%
Waupaca 10/21/2020 2,065 12,994 177 36 1 3,991.80 69.6 1.70%
Waushara 10/21/2020 837 7,839 11 4 0 3,444.70 16.5 0.50%
Winnebago 10/21/2020 7,807 52,461 340 53 0 4,610.10 31.3 0.70%
Wood 10/21/2020 1,426 17,860 77 9 0 1,926.40 12.2 0.60%

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