Jeramey Jannene
WI Daily

71 of 72 Counties Have “Critically High” COVID-19 Levels

Milwaukee County now has 26th-worst all-time per-capita outbreak.

By - Nov 19th, 2020 03:08 pm
COVID-19. Credit: U.S. Army.

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

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services reported 6,635 new cases on Thursday from 19,220 processed tests.

A new Activity Level Report from DHS labels 71 of the state’s 72 counties with a “Critically High” level of disease. The measure, introduced last week as cases surged to record levels, indicates a county has had more than one percent of its residents test positive for the virus in the past two weeks (over 1,000 cases per 100,000 residents).

The only county not to eclipse that 1,000 case per 100,000 resident threshold is Green County, which had a rate of 938.6. The two-week statewide average is 1,519.4 cases per 100,000 residents, the highest on record.

The seven-day case total stands at 45,084, below yesterday’s record 45,946. September, when Wisconsin’s surge started, accounted for 46,671 cases in its entirety. The seven-day testing total stands at 129,831, below Wednesday’s record 133,019 tests.

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 34.73%, below the record of 36.33% set on November 13th. The 14-day average is 34.55%. 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.

“Since our surge in cases started we been saying it would get worse before it gets better, and you can see it happening,” said DHS Secretary-designee Andrea Palm during a press briefing Wednesday.

DHS reported 236 people were newly hospitalized in the past 24 hours in its daily data release. A total of 15,336 people have required hospitalization since the outbreak began, a 1,565 in the past week.

The Wisconsin Hospital Association reported Wednesday 2,217 people were actively hospitalized with a confirmed case of the disease, a decrease of 60 from Tuesday’s record high, but an increase of 115 over a week ago. Thirty days ago the total was 1,192. WHA updates its dashboard at 3:30 p.m., after the time of publication.

Seventeen patients were in the Alternate Care Facility in West Allis as of Wednesday’s data release, below Tuesday’s record of 23.

DHS reported 83 deaths Thursday, the second-highest total on record. A total of 2,793 Wisconsin residents have died as a result of the virus, including 680 in Milwaukee County.

An average of 41.43 deaths per day have been reported over the past 30 days. Thirty days ago the rolling average was 13.03.

Since September, Milwaukee County has gone from having the worst per-capita outbreak to the 26th worst in the state, even as its case and hospitalization load has surged to record levels.

Menominee County has recorded 12,072.1 cases per 100,000 residents (up from 11,980.8). Shawano County has recorded 8,354.3 cases per 100,000 residents (up from 8,269.5). Dodge, Brown, Oconto, Forest, Fond du Lac, Kewaunee, Calumet, Winnebago, Langlade, Sheboygan, Outagamie, Waushara, Trempealeau, Jackson, Waupaca, Florence, Barron, Eau Claire, Marinette, Marathon, Juneau, Marquette and Racine counties are the remaining counties leading Milwaukee.

According to DHS data, 6,263.3 out of every 100,000 Milwaukee County residents have tested positive for COVID-19 since the outbreak began (up from 6,172.9).

The statewide average of cases per 100,000 residents rose to 5,854.9 (up from 5,740.1). Wisconsin has recorded a per-capita rate of 1,519.4 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 923 5,809 62 6 1 4,503.50 29.3 0.70%
Ashland 546 4,925 24 7 0 3,442.00 44.1 1.30%
Barron 3,023 14,489 47 35 0 6,588.90 76.3 1.20%
Bayfield 587 4,837 17 6 0 3,860.80 39.5 1.00%
Brown 20,563 102,664 484 126 4 7,898.90 48.4 0.60%
Buffalo 647 3,690 11 4 0 4,789.40 29.6 0.60%
Burnett 638 4,458 22 9 0 4,130.30 58.3 1.40%
Calumet 3,732 15,323 165 22 1 7,250.00 42.7 0.60%
Chippewa 3,894 21,946 39 43 2 6,063.50 67 1.10%
Clark 1,824 8,057 141 31 3 5,250.30 89.2 1.70%
Columbia 2,917 21,524 190 10 1 5,106.10 17.5 0.30%
Crawford 752 5,815 10 4 0 4,542.40 24.2 0.50%
Dane 23,869 263,742 650 69 2 4,516.40 13.1 0.30%
Dodge 7,377 32,055 360 65 4 8,269.70 72.9 0.90%
Door 1,464 10,728 102 10 0 5,219.10 35.6 0.70%
Douglas 1,484 11,929 21 1 0 3,382.40 2.3 0.10%
Dunn 2,217 13,694 90 5 0 4,951.20 11.2 0.20%
Eau Claire 6,778 35,890 91 48 5 6,587.40 46.7 0.70%
Florence 292 1,274 16 11 0 6,604.80 248.8 3.80%
Fond du Lac 7,612 33,757 317 38 2 7,363.60 36.8 0.50%
Forest 677 3,066 42 15 1 7,373.10 163.4 2.20%
Grant 3,101 18,674 173 54 2 5,920.90 103.1 1.70%
Green 1,476 11,890 26 5 1 4,003.90 13.6 0.30%
Green Lake 1,086 5,864 199 5 0 5,689.40 26.2 0.50%
Iowa 1,117 8,330 29 4 0 4,693.50 16.8 0.40%
Iron 314 2,005 61 6 3 5,373.00 102.7 1.90%
Jackson 1,380 8,467 17 4 0 6,684.80 19.4 0.30%
Jefferson 4,621 27,829 270 33 1 5,457.30 39 0.70%
Juneau 1,698 12,019 7 7 0 6,310.40 26 0.40%
Kenosha 8,088 55,626 799 119 3 4,807.70 70.7 1.50%
Kewaunee 1,510 5,702 41 14 0 7,314.50 67.8 0.90%
La Crosse 6,919 38,594 258 32 0 5,847.10 27 0.50%
Lafayette 973 5,019 15 2 0 5,763.20 11.8 0.20%
Langlade 1,417 5,371 71 23 7 7,164.90 116.3 1.60%
Lincoln 1,666 7,935 74 21 4 5,857.50 73.8 1.30%
Manitowoc 4,317 22,265 579 29 4 5,379.20 36.1 0.70%
Marathon 8,605 37,310 683 111 12 6,386.30 82.4 1.30%
Marinette 2,635 13,815 206 25 0 6,436.60 61.1 0.90%
Marquette 970 4,657 107 7 0 6,307.70 45.5 0.70%
Menominee 529 3,513 1 2 0 12,072.10 45.6 0.40%
Milwaukee 59,156 356,102 3,985 680 9 6,263.30 72 1.10%
Monroe 2,120 14,234 26 11 0 4,608.90 23.9 0.50%
Oconto 2,918 12,943 199 23 3 7,686.60 60.6 0.80%
Oneida 2,032 12,807 58 25 1 5,658.10 69.6 1.20%
Outagamie 12,694 61,540 603 110 0 6,906.40 59.8 0.90%
Ozaukee 4,102 29,060 502 33 3 4,642.40 37.3 0.80%
Pepin 403 2,201 6 2 0 5,483.70 27.2 0.50%
Pierce 1,698 11,960 321 11 4 4,078.30 26.4 0.60%
Polk 1,722 13,844 16 4 0 3,922.60 9.1 0.20%
Portage 4,209 20,153 178 33 2 5,951.70 46.7 0.80%
Price 624 4,162 27 3 0 4,519.10 21.7 0.50%
Racine 12,302 85,460 1,199 146 3 6,302.20 74.8 1.20%
Richland 756 7,538 18 11 0 4,268.30 62.1 1.50%
Rock 8,173 55,271 295 62 2 5,099.70 38.7 0.80%
Rusk 705 3,605 21 5 0 4,850.70 34.4 0.70%
Sauk 3,080 28,224 91 14 0 4,913.40 22.3 0.50%
Sawyer 727 6,124 6 6 0 4,387.70 36.2 0.80%
Shawano 3,447 13,285 97 42 1 8,354.30 101.8 1.20%
Sheboygan 8,021 34,457 274 48 2 7,004.30 41.9 0.60%
St. Croix 3,711 25,628 175 19 0 4,209.00 21.5 0.50%
Taylor 1,019 4,376 44 11 1 4,951.40 53.4 1.10%
Trempealeau 1,993 9,223 29 11 0 6,794.60 37.5 0.60%
Vernon 918 9,916 6 7 0 3,031.00 23.1 0.80%
Vilas 1,052 6,550 26 11 0 4,857.80 50.8 1.00%
Walworth 5,202 31,809 735 45 2 5,069.40 43.9 0.90%
Washburn 524 4,494 25 2 0 3,305.40 12.6 0.40%
Washington 7,546 38,636 846 62 4 5,611.00 46.1 0.80%
Waukesha 22,536 123,110 1,762 168 5 5,653.20 42.1 0.70%
Waupaca 3,450 15,316 371 78 23 6,669.10 150.8 2.30%
Waushara 1,653 8,854 47 7 0 6,803.00 28.8 0.40%
Winnebago 12,229 61,844 921 98 4 7,221.40 57.9 0.80%
Wood 3,512 22,243 215 20 2 4,744.30 27 0.60%

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