3,507 New Cases, 0 Deaths Reported Sunday

Sunday’s data release from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services serves as a good example of why it’s more important to look at averages and weekly totals than one-day totals to understand the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services reported no new deaths for the first time since October 18th. The state is averaging 52.57 per day over the past week.

“We are pleased to report no new deaths in today’s update. And remember, we encourage you to check 7-day averages for case counts to get a better idea of trends, as those smooth out day-to-day fluctuations,” said DHS in a tweet announcing the daily data release.

DHS reported 3,507 new cases on Sunday from 14,899 processed tests. It’s the lowest total of new cases reported since October 26th.

The seven-day case total stands at 42,307, below Thursday’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 126,320, 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 33.49%, below the record of 36.33% set on November 13th. The 14-day average is 34.13%. 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 89 people were newly hospitalized in the past 24 hours in its daily data release, the lowest total since October 26th. A total of 15,823 people have required hospitalization since the outbreak began, 1,442 in the past week.

The Wisconsin Hospital Association reported that 1,990 people were actively hospitalized with a confirmed case of the disease, a decrease of two from a day ago and 108 from a week ago. Thirty days ago the total was 1,243.

Twenty-one patients were in the Alternate Care Facility in West Allis.

DHS reported zero deaths Sunday. A total of 3,005 Wisconsin residents have died as a result of the virus, including 700 in Milwaukee County.

An average of 42 deaths per day have been reported over the past 30 days. Thirty days ago the rolling average was 16.2.

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 12,231.9 cases per 100,000 residents (up from 12,209). Dodge County has recorded 8,628.4 cases per 100,000 residents (up from 8,566.8). Shawano, Brown, Oconto, Forest, Fond du Lac, Kewaunee, Calumet, Winnebago, Langlade, Sheboygan, Outagamie, Waushara, Trempealeau, Jackson, Waupaca, Florence, Barron, Eau Claire, Marinette, Marathon, Juneau, Chippewa and Racine counties are the remaining counties leading Milwaukee.

According to DHS data, 6,536.8 out of every 100,000 Milwaukee County residents have tested positive for COVID-19 since the outbreak began (up from 6,476.1).

The statewide average of cases per 100,000 residents rose to 6,135.1 (up from 6,074.5). 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

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 †	Number of probable deaths ‡	Cases per 100,000 people (counties)	Deaths per 100,000 people (counties)	Case fatality percentage ††
Adams	977	5,874	67	6	1	4,767.00	29.3	0.60%
Ashland	580	5,110	24	8	0	3,656.30	50.4	1.40%
Barron	3,250	14,829	57	37	0	7,083.70	80.6	1.10%
Bayfield	616	5,015	18	7	0	4,051.60	46	1.10%
Brown	21,156	103,685	524	127	4	8,126.60	48.8	0.60%
Buffalo	715	3,772	11	4	0	5,292.80	29.6	0.60%
Burnett	704	4,593	23	10	0	4,557.50	64.7	1.40%
Calumet	3,862	15,600	185	25	1	7,502.50	48.6	0.60%
Chippewa	4,255	22,428	43	45	2	6,625.70	70.1	1.10%
Clark	1,961	8,195	145	33	3	5,644.60	95	1.70%
Columbia	3,121	21,998	193	10	1	5,463.20	17.5	0.30%
Crawford	815	5,992	15	5	0	4,923.00	30.2	0.60%
Dane	24,866	268,134	688	75	3	4,705.00	14.2	0.30%
Dodge	7,697	32,533	370	66	4	8,628.40	74	0.90%
Door	1,525	10,860	106	11	0	5,436.50	39.2	0.70%
Douglas	1,738	12,229	84	1	0	3,961.30	2.3	0.10%
Dunn	2,413	14,050	91	8	0	5,388.90	17.9	0.30%
Eau Claire	7,182	36,736	108	54	4	6,980.10	52.5	0.80%
Florence	304	1,291	18	11	0	6,876.30	248.8	3.60%
Fond du Lac	7,859	34,408	361	40	3	7,602.60	38.7	0.50%
Forest	691	3,134	45	16	1	7,525.60	174.3	2.30%
Grant	3,203	18,820	195	57	2	6,115.60	108.8	1.80%
Green	1,542	12,160	28	5	1	4,182.90	13.6	0.30%
Green Lake	1,121	5,928	213	5	0	5,872.80	26.2	0.40%
Iowa	1,180	8,567	36	4	0	4,958.20	16.8	0.30%
Iron	326	2,035	58	6	3	5,578.40	102.7	1.80%
Jackson	1,573	8,650	19	4	0	7,619.60	19.4	0.30%
Jefferson	4,849	28,197	312	33	1	5,726.60	39	0.70%
Juneau	1,777	12,256	9	7	0	6,604.00	26	0.40%
Kenosha	8,425	56,322	917	123	3	5,008.00	73.1	1.50%
Kewaunee	1,567	5,735	41	15	0	7,590.60	72.7	1.00%
La Crosse	7,340	39,279	264	32	0	6,202.80	27	0.40%
Lafayette	1,022	5,099	21	3	0	6,053.40	17.8	0.30%
Langlade	1,447	5,437	75	24	7	7,316.60	121.4	1.70%
Lincoln	1,774	8,141	85	22	5	6,237.30	77.4	1.20%
Manitowoc	4,527	22,668	616	33	4	5,640.80	41.1	0.70%
Marathon	8,965	38,109	729	113	12	6,653.50	83.9	1.30%
Marinette	2,732	13,944	218	25	0	6,673.50	61.1	0.90%
Marquette	994	4,715	113	12	0	6,463.80	78	1.20%
Menominee	536	3,544	1	2	0	12,231.90	45.6	0.40%
Milwaukee	61,739	362,515	4,302	700	9	6,536.80	74.1	1.10%
Monroe	2,304	14,602	27	11	0	5,008.90	23.9	0.50%
Oconto	2,981	13,076	203	23	3	7,852.60	60.6	0.80%
Oneida	2,140	13,025	62	28	1	5,958.80	78	1.30%
Outagamie	13,035	62,477	718	113	0	7,091.90	61.5	0.90%
Ozaukee	4,328	29,568	531	33	3	4,898.10	37.3	0.80%
Pepin	438	2,270	4	2	0	5,960.00	27.2	0.50%
Pierce	1,855	12,230	348	16	4	4,455.40	38.4	0.90%
Polk	1,894	14,289	18	5	0	4,314.40	11.4	0.30%
Portage	4,372	20,533	195	35	2	6,182.20	49.5	0.80%
Price	659	4,239	30	3	0	4,772.60	21.7	0.50%
Racine	13,093	86,490	1,269	149	3	6,707.40	76.3	1.10%
Richland	806	7,680	18	12	0	4,550.60	67.8	1.50%
Rock	8,664	56,378	315	69	2	5,406.00	43.1	0.80%
Rusk	742	3,710	22	5	0	5,105.30	34.4	0.70%
Sauk	3,279	28,679	112	16	0	5,230.80	25.5	0.50%
Sawyer	788	6,279	9	7	0	4,755.90	42.2	0.90%
Shawano	3,534	13,449	128	44	1	8,565.20	106.6	1.20%
Sheboygan	8,347	34,954	310	48	2	7,289.00	41.9	0.60%
St. Croix	3,964	26,250	206	19	0	4,495.90	21.5	0.50%
Taylor	1,033	4,428	96	10	2	5,019.40	48.6	1.00%
Trempealeau	2,175	9,377	31	12	0	7,415.10	40.9	0.60%
Vernon	993	10,140	6	7	0	3,278.60	23.1	0.70%
Vilas	1,112	6,677	29	11	0	5,134.80	50.8	1.00%
Walworth	5,448	32,531	843	46	2	5,309.20	44.8	0.80%
Washburn	581	4,604	32	2	0	3,664.90	12.6	0.30%
Washington	7,997	39,458	909	64	5	5,946.30	47.6	0.80%
Waukesha	23,692	125,535	1,874	181	6	5,943.20	45.4	0.80%
Waupaca	3,522	15,563	429	77	27	6,808.30	148.8	2.20%
Waushara	1,679	8,933	51	7	0	6,910.00	28.8	0.40%
Winnebago	12,511	62,412	1,088	101	4	7,387.90	59.6	0.80%
Wood	3,784	22,829	221	25	4	5,111.70	33.8	0.70%