537 New COVID-19 Cases Reported

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services reported 537 new COVID-19 cases Thursday from 5,014 processed tests.

The Wisconsin Hospital Association reported that 239 people were actively hospitalized with a confirmed case of the disease, an decrease of 9 from the day prior and an increase of 17 from a week ago. Thirty days ago the total was 347.

The state reported 60 people were newly hospitalized in the past 24 hours in its daily data release. A total of 27,314 people have required hospitalization since the outbreak began, 320 in the past week.

DHS reported 2 COVID-19 deaths. A total of 6,599 Wisconsin residents have died as a result of the virus, including 1,256 in Milwaukee County.

The 30-day average daily death total now stands at 9.40, below the December 23rd reported record of 53.43. Thirty days ago the rolling average was 20.87.

Since September, Milwaukee County has gone from having the worst per-capita outbreak to the 18th worst in the state. The county fell as low as 26th in early November.

Menominee County has recorded 18,119.6 cases per 100,000 residents (unchanged). Dodge County has recorded 12,951.1 cases per 100,000 residents (up from 12,946.6). Jackson, Barron, Brown, Trempealeau, Fond du Lac, Sheboygan, Kewaunee, Oconto, Juneau, Shawano, Chippewa, Pepin, Eau Claire, Calumet and Outagamie are the remaining counties leading Milwaukee.

According to DHS data, 10,594.2 out of every 100,000 Milwaukee County residents (up from 10,580.8) have tested positive for COVID-19 since the outbreak began.

The statewide average of cases per 100,000 residents rose to 9,936.5 (up from 9,927.2).

The City of Milwaukee revised its gating criteria on March 18th in accordance with its new health order. The three criteria are intended to guide what phase of the health order the city should progress to, either loosening or tightening restrictions.

The five-level scale measures range from blue (good, low transmission) to purple (bad, extreme transmission).

The data, last updated March 18th and excluding the four days prior, indicates the city has a moderate transmission level (45.8) with regards to new cases per 100,000 residents in the past seven days (10-49 is moderate transmission).

The city has low transmission based on the positive test rate (2.4%). Low transmission is defined as less than 5%.

The adult vaccination rate (which the city defines as any individual over the age of 15 completing the dose course for any COVID-19 rate) stands at 8.5%. The low transmission target is 80% and the city has not defined the lower benchmark thresholds.

The city is no longer using hospital bed usage, contact tracing or personal protective equipment supply to guide its COVID-19 health order.

The city is currently in phase six of its health order. According to a chart produced by the health department, the city would enter phase 7 when all three criteria reach the low transmission benchmarks.

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	1,613	7,975	168	10	5	7,870.2	48.8	0.6%
Ashland	1,194	6,924	75	16	0	7,526.9	100.9	1.3%
Barron	5,507	19,258	157	76	0	12,003.1	165.6	1.4%
Bayfield	1,071	6,852	91	19	0	7,044.2	125.0	1.8%
Brown	30,570	130,353	3,023	229	37	11,742.8	88.0	0.7%
Buffalo	1,324	5,322	34	7	0	9,800.9	51.8	0.5%
Burnett	1,225	6,027	139	22	0	7,930.3	142.4	1.8%
Calumet	5,577	21,237	605	46	4	10,834.2	89.4	0.8%
Chippewa	7,164	29,103	188	93	2	11,155.4	144.8	1.3%
Clark	3,164	10,748	393	58	4	9,107.4	166.9	1.8%
Columbia	5,155	26,997	380	56	12	9,023.6	98.0	1.1%
Crawford	1,677	7,444	54	17	0	10,129.9	102.7	1.0%
Dane	41,792	329,048	1,488	289	23	7,907.7	54.7	0.7%
Dodge	11,553	41,031	828	158	24	12,951.1	177.1	1.4%
Door	2,496	14,133	210	21	5	8,898.1	74.9	0.8%
Douglas	3,721	18,939	628	29	17	8,481.1	66.1	0.8%
Dunn	4,341	18,715	357	30	0	9,694.7	67.0	0.7%
Eau Claire	11,202	49,547	337	105	11	10,887.0	102.0	0.9%
Florence	429	1,602	50	12	0	9,703.7	271.4	2.8%
Fond du Lac	12,052	44,984	1,185	103	8	11,658.8	99.6	0.9%
Forest	934	4,290	72	23	3	10,172.1	250.5	2.5%
Grant	4,718	23,196	704	83	5	9,008.3	158.5	1.8%
Green	3,306	16,699	113	16	6	8,968.1	43.4	0.5%
Green Lake	1,528	7,794	436	18	3	8,005.0	94.3	1.2%
Iowa	1,943	11,060	89	11	1	8,164.2	46.2	0.6%
Iron	564	2,555	119	21	19	9,650.9	359.3	3.7%
Jackson	2,589	9,372	49	28	0	12,541.2	135.6	1.1%
Jefferson	8,019	35,720	1,049	106	20	9,470.3	125.2	1.3%
Juneau	3,036	14,411	108	20	2	11,282.9	74.3	0.7%
Kenosha	14,920	73,155	2,453	303	15	8,868.8	180.1	2.0%
Kewaunee	2,351	7,424	256	24	6	11,388.3	116.3	1.0%
La Crosse	12,377	54,733	774	80	0	10,459.5	67.6	0.6%
Lafayette	1,488	6,509	155	6	1	8,813.6	35.5	0.4%
Langlade	1,942	7,069	161	32	13	9,819.5	161.8	1.6%
Lincoln	2,934	10,680	202	58	19	10,315.7	203.9	2.0%
Manitowoc	7,333	30,447	1,161	67	17	9,137.2	83.5	0.9%
Marathon	13,831	50,993	1,441	184	34	10,264.9	136.6	1.3%
Marinette	3,996	18,492	410	65	3	9,761.1	158.8	1.6%
Marquette	1,325	6,138	181	21	6	8,616.2	136.6	1.6%
Menominee	794	3,659	3	11	0	18,119.6	251.0	1.4%
Milwaukee	100,060	468,889	9,455	1,256	43	10,594.2	133.0	1.3%
Monroe	4,369	18,846	101	34	1	9,498.2	73.9	0.8%
Oconto	4,319	16,855	468	49	7	11,377.2	129.1	1.1%
Oneida	3,476	14,914	146	68	5	9,678.9	189.3	2.0%
Outagamie	19,762	86,732	2,617	197	16	10,751.9	107.2	1.0%
Ozaukee	7,817	41,199	954	81	7	8,846.8	91.7	1.0%
Pepin	817	3,068	23	7	0	11,117.2	95.3	0.9%
Pierce	3,593	16,634	909	35	6	8,629.8	84.1	1.0%
Polk	4,028	19,298	89	45	3	9,175.4	102.5	1.1%
Portage	6,536	26,814	541	66	3	9,242.2	93.3	1.0%
Price	1,174	5,541	97	7	0	8,502.3	50.7	0.6%
Racine	20,608	97,166	2,736	335	26	10,557.2	171.6	1.6%
Richland	1,297	7,979	43	15	0	7,322.7	84.7	1.2%
Rock	14,683	74,569	1,604	164	15	9,161.7	102.3	1.1%
Rusk	1,278	5,023	44	16	1	8,793.2	110.1	1.3%
Sauk	5,430	34,749	268	44	6	8,662.2	70.2	0.8%
Sawyer	1,556	8,258	40	22	0	9,391.0	132.8	1.4%
Shawano	4,619	17,287	548	69	12	11,194.9	167.2	1.5%
Sheboygan	13,196	47,224	813	133	9	11,523.4	116.1	1.0%
St. Croix	6,646	35,732	1,652	47	7	7,537.8	53.3	0.7%
Taylor	1,798	5,868	243	23	9	8,736.6	111.8	1.3%
Trempealeau	3,432	12,158	99	38	3	11,700.5	129.6	1.1%
Vernon	1,869	12,498	63	38	3	6,171.0	125.5	2.0%
Vilas	2,186	8,844	137	39	2	10,094.2	180.1	1.8%
Walworth	8,991	41,232	2,537	133	20	8,761.9	129.6	1.5%
Washburn	1,343	6,557	77	18	2	8,471.6	113.5	1.3%
Washington	14,037	54,262	1,873	139	10	10,437.5	103.4	1.0%
Waukesha	41,760	175,137	4,445	498	45	10,475.6	124.9	1.2%
Waupaca	4,757	20,517	1,057	116	44	9,195.6	224.2	2.4%
Waushara	2,117	10,819	316	31	4	8,712.7	127.6	1.5%
Winnebago	17,394	81,535	2,883	186	21	10,271.4	109.8	1.1%
Wood	6,733	31,334	483	77	13	9,095.5	104.0	1.1%