Jeramey Jannene
WI Daily

One in Three Wisconsin Residents Has Tested Negative For COVID-19

New active hospitalization high. Milwaukee County falls to 21st worst all-time outbreak.

By - Nov 15th, 2020 05:47 pm
COVID-19. Credit: U.S. Army.

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

Over two million Wisconsin residents have tested negative for COVID-19 since the pandemic took hold. That’s according to data released Sunday afternoon by the state Department of Health Services.

A negative test does not confer future immunity and is only a snapshot of a particular moment in time. But it does show that the majority of Wisconsin’s almost six million residents have never been tested for COVID-19.

On Sunday DHS reported 6,058 new cases of COVID-19 from 17,977 processed tests. A total of 312,369 residents have tested positive, 2,001,239 negative.

The positive and negative totals do not reflect the total number of tests administered, but instead the number of people uniquely tested. For example, I have tested negative twice. I only count as one negative in the results. Similar filtering occurs for people testing positive multiple times.

The seven-day case total rose to 44,959, just below Friday’s record of 45,100. A week ago the running total was 38,547. September, when Wisconsin’s surge started, accounted for 46,671 cases in its entirety.

The seven-day positive case rate, the percentage of tests that confirm a new case of the disease and proxy for if the disease’s spread is growing or slowing, stands at 34.75%, below the record of 36.33% set on November 13th. The 14-day average is at a record 34.29%. The 14-day average set 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 rate figure to be sustained under five percent.

DHS reported 155 people were newly hospitalized in the past 24 hours in its daily data release. A total of 14,381 people have required hospitalization since the outbreak began, 1,542 in the past week.

The Wisconsin Hospital Association reported a record 2,096 people were actively hospitalized with a confirmed case of the disease, an increase of 62 over Saturday and 236 over a week ago. Thirty days ago the total was 1,101.

Eighteen patients were in the Alternate Care Facility in West Allis, down from Saturday’s record 20.

DHS reported 12 deaths Sunday. A total of 2,637 Wisconsin residents have died as a result of the virus, including 643 in Milwaukee County.

An average of 35.43 deaths per day have been reported over the past 30 days. Thirty days ago the rolling average was 11.53.

Since September, Milwaukee County has gone from having the worst per-capita outbreak to the 21th worst in the state, even as its case and hospitalization load has surged to record levels.

Menominee County has recorded 11,341.9 cases per 100,000 residents (up from 11,045.2). Shawano County has recorded 8,063.5 cases per 100,000 residents (up from 7,872). Brown, Oconto, Dodge, Forest, Winnebago, Fond du Lac, Kewaunee, Calumet, Langlade, Outagamie, Waushara, Waupaca, Sheboygan, Florence, Marinette, Marquette, Marathon and Jackson counties are the remaining counties leading Milwaukee.

According to DHS data, 5,920.5 out of every 100,000 Milwaukee County residents have tested positive for COVID-19 since the outbreak began (up from 5,872).

The statewide average of cases per 100,000 residents rose to 5,403.3 (up from 5,298.5). Wisconsin has recorded a per-capita rate of 1,310.6 cases per 100,000 residents 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 844 5,633 63 6 1 4,118.10 29.3 0.70%
Ashland 501 4,712 18 6 0 3,158.30 37.8 1.20%
Barron 2,641 13,993 45 30 0 5,756.30 65.4 1.10%
Bayfield 526 4,624 16 6 0 3,459.60 39.5 1.10%
Brown 19,843 100,808 469 121 2 7,622.30 46.5 0.60%
Buffalo 569 3,595 10 3 0 4,212.00 22.2 0.50%
Burnett 544 4,268 20 7 0 3,521.70 45.3 1.30%
Calumet 3,538 14,934 133 21 1 6,873.10 40.8 0.60%
Chippewa 3,511 21,197 40 38 2 5,467.10 59.2 1.10%
Clark 1,679 7,861 126 24 3 4,832.90 69.1 1.40%
Columbia 2,714 21,107 186 10 1 4,750.70 17.5 0.40%
Crawford 667 5,684 9 4 0 4,029.00 24.2 0.60%
Dane 21,720 259,011 617 61 2 4,109.80 11.5 0.30%
Dodge 6,662 31,282 339 53 4 7,468.20 59.4 0.80%
Door 1,385 10,364 98 10 0 4,937.40 35.6 0.70%
Douglas 1,315 11,582 14 1 0 2,997.20 2.3 0.10%
Dunn 1,983 13,032 85 3 0 4,428.60 6.7 0.20%
Eau Claire 5,865 34,361 89 40 4 5,700.10 38.9 0.70%
Florence 271 1,258 16 11 0 6,129.80 248.8 4.10%
Fond du Lac 7,010 32,873 265 34 2 6,781.30 32.9 0.50%
Forest 642 2,941 41 12 0 6,991.90 130.7 1.90%
Grant 2,910 18,281 120 52 2 5,556.20 99.3 1.80%
Green 1,390 11,658 24 5 0 3,770.60 13.6 0.40%
Green Lake 1,048 5,747 171 4 0 5,490.40 21 0.40%
Iowa 965 8,119 29 4 0 4,054.80 16.8 0.40%
Iron 299 1,974 51 5 2 5,116.40 85.6 1.70%
Jackson 1,228 8,256 15 2 0 5,948.50 9.7 0.20%
Jefferson 4,241 27,145 216 30 1 5,008.60 35.4 0.70%
Juneau 1,558 11,726 7 6 0 5,790.10 22.3 0.40%
Kenosha 7,413 54,107 738 108 2 4,406.40 64.2 1.50%
Kewaunee 1,435 5,589 39 13 0 6,951.20 63 0.90%
La Crosse 6,285 37,236 229 30 0 5,311.30 25.4 0.50%
Lafayette 913 4,928 13 2 0 5,407.80 11.8 0.20%
Langlade 1,365 5,261 62 21 5 6,902.00 106.2 1.50%
Lincoln 1,531 7,770 61 15 3 5,382.90 52.7 1.00%
Manitowoc 4,042 21,801 525 29 4 5,036.50 36.1 0.70%
Marathon 8,069 36,357 581 96 10 5,988.50 71.2 1.20%
Marinette 2,496 13,591 194 22 0 6,097.00 53.7 0.90%
Marquette 925 4,557 107 7 0 6,015.10 45.5 0.80%
Menominee 497 3,481 1 2 0 11,341.90 45.6 0.40%
Milwaukee 55,918 348,330 3,631 643 9 5,920.50 68.1 1.10%
Monroe 1,920 13,865 27 11 0 4,174.10 23.9 0.60%
Oconto 2,784 12,694 172 21 3 7,333.60 55.3 0.80%
Oneida 1,876 12,698 38 22 0 5,223.70 61.3 1.20%
Outagamie 12,117 60,137 515 100 0 6,592.50 54.4 0.80%
Ozaukee 3,813 28,171 459 29 3 4,315.30 32.8 0.80%
Pepin 360 2,113 4 1 0 4,898.60 13.6 0.30%
Pierce 1,480 11,409 285 9 2 3,554.70 21.6 0.60%
Polk 1,501 13,416 15 4 0 3,419.10 9.1 0.30%
Portage 3,991 19,643 150 30 2 5,643.50 42.4 0.80%
Price 577 4,060 23 3 0 4,178.70 21.7 0.50%
Racine 11,295 84,266 1,128 140 3 5,786.30 71.7 1.20%
Richland 714 7,411 18 10 0 4,031.20 56.5 1.40%
Rock 7,707 54,206 288 60 2 4,808.90 37.4 0.80%
Rusk 592 3,478 22 5 0 4,073.20 34.4 0.80%
Sauk 2,919 27,563 87 10 0 4,656.50 16 0.30%
Sawyer 647 5,995 6 5 0 3,904.90 30.2 0.80%
Shawano 3,327 13,075 80 41 1 8,063.50 99.4 1.20%
Sheboygan 7,222 33,671 258 43 2 6,306.60 37.5 0.60%
St. Croix 3,341 24,593 142 18 0 3,789.30 20.4 0.50%
Taylor 852 4,192 43 10 0 4,139.90 48.6 1.20%
Trempealeau 1,692 8,929 26 7 0 5,768.40 23.9 0.40%
Vernon 824 9,507 6 5 0 2,720.60 16.5 0.60%
Vilas 965 6,424 22 9 0 4,456.00 41.6 0.90%
Walworth 4,793 31,312 581 43 2 4,670.90 41.9 0.90%
Washburn 452 4,284 14 2 0 2,851.20 12.6 0.40%
Washington 7,023 37,705 776 58 4 5,222.10 43.1 0.80%
Waukesha 18,808 119,642 1,521 163 4 4,718.00 40.9 0.90%
Waupaca 3,332 15,067 333 67 21 6,441.00 129.5 2.00%
Waushara 1,594 8,695 34 6 0 6,560.20 24.7 0.40%
Winnebago 11,781 60,466 790 91 3 6,956.80 53.7 0.80%
Wood 3,112 21,518 179 17 2 4,203.90 23 0.50%

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