New COVID-19 Cases at Lowest Point Since September 13th

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services reported 934 new COVID-19 cases Saturday from 4,438 processed tests.

The seven-day case total stands at 7,747, below November 18th’s record report of 45,946 and its lowest point since September 13th. The seven-day testing total stands at 35,426, below November 18th’s record rolling total of 133,019 tests. The testing total is filtered to only include individuals who were tested for the first time or have been tested previously but are receiving their first positive diagnosis.

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 21.87%, below the record high of 38.12% set December 4th. The 14-day average is 21.83%. 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. But the seven-day average hasn’t been below 10% since September 6th.

The Wisconsin Hospital Association reported that 570 people were actively hospitalized with a confirmed case of the disease, a decrease of 13 from a day prior and 87 from a week ago. The total decreased every day for the past week. Thirty days ago the total was 1,077.

The state reported 90 people were newly hospitalized in the past 24 hours in its daily data release. A total of 24,824 people have required hospitalization since the outbreak began, 581 in the past week.

DHS reported 32 new deaths. A total of 6,052 Wisconsin residents have died as a result of the virus, including 1,180 in Milwaukee County.

The 30-day average daily death total now stands at 32.43, below the December 23rd reported record of 53.43. Thirty days ago the rolling average was 42.43.

Since September, Milwaukee County has gone from having the worst per-capita outbreak to the 18th worst in the state, even as its case and hospitalization load has surged to record levels. The county fell as low as 26th in early November.

Menominee County has recorded 18,051.1 cases per 100,000 residents (up from 18,028.3). Dodge County has recorded 12,586.7 cases per 100,000 residents (up from 12,572.2). Jackson, Shawano, Trempealeau, Brown, Fond du Lac, Oconto, Sheboygan, Kewaunee, Barron, Chippewa, Calumet and Juneau are the remaining counties leading Milwaukee.

According to DHS data, 10,169.7 out of every 100,000 Milwaukee County residents have tested positive for COVID-19 since the outbreak began (up from 10,151.5).

The statewide average of cases per 100,000 residents rose to 9,499.2 (up from 9,483.1). Wisconsin has recorded a per-capita rate of 337.5 cases per 100,000 residents in the past two weeks according to the DHS activity level report released Wednesday. That’s down from the record 1,519.4 reported November 18th.

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	1,523	7,396	155	11	3	7,431.1	53.7	0.7%
Ashland	1,160	6,543	64	16	0	7,312.6	100.9	1.4%
Barron	5,183	18,154	137	72	0	11,296.9	156.9	1.4%
Bayfield	1,052	6,410	64	18	0	6,919.2	118.4	1.7%
Brown	29,633	122,640	2,182	199	20	11,382.9	76.4	0.7%
Buffalo	1,290	4,993	29	7	0	9,549.2	51.8	0.5%
Burnett	1,123	5,714	127	23	0	7,270.0	148.9	2.0%
Calumet	5,332	19,470	498	39	2	10,358.2	75.8	0.7%
Chippewa	6,902	27,191	147	86	2	10,747.4	133.9	1.2%
Clark	3,126	9,951	374	56	4	8,998.0	161.2	1.8%
Columbia	4,899	25,713	367	46	7	8,575.5	80.5	0.9%
Crawford	1,644	7,124	47	17	0	9,930.5	102.7	1.0%
Dane	38,588	314,338	1,532	256	21	7,301.5	48.4	0.7%
Dodge	11,228	38,953	736	153	21	12,586.7	171.5	1.4%
Door	2,369	13,308	191	18	5	8,445.3	64.2	0.8%
Douglas	3,623	17,536	543	23	14	8,257.7	52.4	0.6%
Dunn	4,131	17,506	318	26	0	9,225.7	58.1	0.6%
Eau Claire	10,743	46,121	297	101	10	10,440.9	98.2	0.9%
Florence	430	1,543	34	12	0	9,726.3	271.4	2.8%
Fond du Lac	11,682	41,799	985	87	8	11,300.8	84.2	0.7%
Forest	914	4,019	70	22	3	9,954.3	239.6	2.4%
Grant	4,551	21,903	656	79	5	8,689.4	150.8	1.7%
Green	2,840	15,339	100	13	6	7,704.0	35.3	0.5%
Green Lake	1,508	7,248	414	17	3	7,900.3	89.1	1.1%
Iowa	1,812	10,414	88	9	1	7,613.8	37.8	0.5%
Iron	489	2,400	112	19	18	8,367.6	325.1	3.9%
Jackson	2,555	9,123	39	22	0	12,376.5	106.6	0.9%
Jefferson	7,653	33,721	911	73	6	9,038.1	86.2	1.0%
Juneau	2,921	14,027	81	18	1	10,855.5	66.9	0.6%
Kenosha	14,431	68,672	1,986	280	17	8,578.1	166.4	1.9%
Kewaunee	2,377	6,876	161	27	1	11,514.2	130.8	1.1%
La Crosse	11,893	49,892	628	74	0	10,050.5	62.5	0.6%
Lafayette	1,387	6,057	144	7	1	8,215.4	41.5	0.5%
Langlade	1,902	6,590	153	31	12	9,617.2	156.7	1.6%
Lincoln	2,838	10,018	187	56	17	9,978.2	196.9	2.0%
Manitowoc	7,058	28,160	1,072	61	15	8,794.6	76.0	0.9%
Marathon	13,386	47,268	1,312	170	32	9,934.6	126.2	1.3%
Marinette	3,930	16,937	373	61	2	9,599.9	149.0	1.6%
Marquette	1,286	5,766	166	21	5	8,362.6	136.6	1.6%
Menominee	791	3,751	2	11	0	18,051.1	251.0	1.4%
Milwaukee	96,051	439,745	8,541	1,180	35	10,169.7	124.9	1.2%
Monroe	4,145	17,643	84	30	1	9,011.3	65.2	0.7%
Oconto	4,192	15,834	425	47	7	11,042.6	123.8	1.1%
Oneida	3,255	14,106	130	62	4	9,063.6	172.6	1.9%
Outagamie	18,683	78,914	2,180	185	7	10,164.9	100.7	1.0%
Ozaukee	7,443	38,150	868	72	6	8,423.5	81.5	1.0%
Pepin	784	2,903	20	7	0	10,668.1	95.3	0.9%
Pierce	3,373	15,633	844	33	6	8,101.4	79.3	1.0%
Polk	3,672	17,851	61	42	0	8,364.5	95.7	1.1%
Portage	6,264	25,267	484	60	4	8,857.6	84.8	1.0%
Price	1,121	5,187	92	7	0	8,118.5	50.7	0.6%
Racine	19,987	95,382	2,510	302	28	10,239.1	154.7	1.5%
Richland	1,246	8,078	35	13	0	7,034.8	73.4	1.0%
Rock	13,973	69,659	1,476	148	13	8,718.7	92.3	1.1%
Rusk	1,234	4,660	40	16	1	8,490.4	110.1	1.3%
Sauk	5,129	33,623	237	37	6	8,182.1	59.0	0.7%
Sawyer	1,438	7,792	31	17	0	8,678.9	102.6	1.2%
Shawano	4,530	16,324	482	69	11	10,979.2	167.2	1.5%
Sheboygan	12,542	43,664	692	125	7	10,952.3	109.2	1.0%
St. Croix	6,197	32,955	1,546	41	4	7,028.5	46.5	0.7%
Taylor	1,766	5,501	211	20	9	8,581.1	97.2	1.1%
Trempealeau	3,311	11,383	88	36	2	11,288.0	122.7	1.1%
Vernon	1,771	12,204	62	35	3	5,847.4	115.6	2.0%
Vilas	2,014	8,127	112	32	2	9,300.0	147.8	1.6%
Walworth	8,687	38,966	2,303	122	16	8,465.6	118.9	1.4%
Washburn	1,251	6,050	71	18	2	7,891.3	113.5	1.4%
Washington	13,426	50,142	1,696	125	8	9,983.2	92.9	0.9%
Waukesha	39,575	161,259	3,940	457	41	9,927.5	114.6	1.2%
Waupaca	4,667	18,929	859	108	40	9,021.7	208.8	2.3%
Waushara	2,057	10,316	285	28	3	8,465.7	115.2	1.4%
Winnebago	16,678	75,246	2,554	173	19	9,848.6	102.2	1.0%
Wood	6,510	28,989	420	68	12	8,794.2	91.9	1.0%