Jeramey Jannene
Daily

COVID-19 Testing Capacity Continues To Outpace Actual Testing

State officials say they've expanded guidance to allow more people to be tested.

By - Apr 10th, 2020 02:25 pm
COVID-19. Credit: U.S. Army.

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

Wisconsin’s statewide capacity to test for COVID-19 continues to exceed the number of tests processed.

Over the last 24 hours, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, nearly twice as many people could have been tested.

A total of 1,984 tests were processed, but the state has the capacity to process 3,756 tests. “We have 20 active labs that are running COVID-19 tests in Wisconsin,” said DHS Secretary-designee Andrea Palm on Friday during a media briefing. That’s up from a capacity of 3,500 reported Monday.

“To address this, we have expanded our testing guidance,” said Palm of the excess capacity. Testing previously was prioritized for those requiring hospitalization, health care workers or other vulnerable populations. That’s now only the case at the publicly-funded labs in Madison and Milwaukee said Dr. Ryan Westergaard, Chief Medical Officer at the DHS Bureau of Communicable Diseases.

Doctors now have much more flexibility to test for the disease in situations where it would beneficial to know the outcome said Westergaard. “If they think COVID-19 might be the diagnosis, they can feel free to order the test,” he said.

The state’s cumulative positive case total has risen to 3,068, with 33,225 people testing negative. Palm reiterated Friday that the positive case count undercounts the actual number of people with the virus because testing capacity still does not allow everyone with mild symptoms to be tested.

The death total grew by 17, the second biggest one day increase, and has reached 128 in the state. That includes 77 deaths in Milwaukee County.

The cumulative hospitalization rate holds steady at 29 percent, with 904 hospitalizations throughout the outbreak. A newly released dashboard shows that 443 COVID-19 patients are currently hospitalized across the state.

Palm said the state is working to purchase more ventilators and is working with a company to purchase 1,500 ventilators. An earlier effort to purchase 10,000 fell through. The state has 1,233 ventilators according to a state dashboard.

Charts and Maps

Wisconsin COVID-19 summary

Status Number (%) of People as of 4/10/2020
Negative Test Result 33,225
Positive Test Result 3,068
Hospitalizations 904 (29%)
Deaths 128

Percent of COVID-19 cases by hospitalization status

Hospitilization status Number of confirmed cases as of 4/10/2020 Percent of confirmed cases as of 4/10/2020
Ever hospitalized 904 29%
Never hospitalized 1,561 51%
Unknown 603 20%
Total 3,068 100%

Confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths by race

Race Number of cases as of 4/10/2020 Percent of cases as of 4/10/2020 Number of deaths as of 4/10/2020 Percent of deaths as of 4/10/2020
American Indian 28 1% 1 1%
Asian or Pacific Islander 71 2% 4 3%
Black 812 26% 56 44%
White 1,535 50% 65 51%
Multiple or Other races 60 2% 0 0%
Unknown 562 18% 2 2%
Total 3,068 100% 128 100%

Confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths by ethnicity

Ethnicity Number of cases as of 4/10/2020 Percent of cases as of 4/10/2020 Number of deaths as of 4/10/2020 Percent of deaths as of 4/10/2020
Hispanic or Latino 313 10% 3 2%
Not Hispanic or Latino 2,085 68% 122 95%
Unknown 670 22% 3 2%
Total 3,068 100% 128 100%

Percent of COVID-19 cases and deaths by gender

Gender Confirmed Cases as of 4/10/2020 Deaths as of 4/10/2020
Female 53% 38%
Male 47% 62%
Total Number 3,068 128

Summary of COVID-19 cases by age group

Age Group (Years) Cases as of 4/10/2020 Ever hospitalized as of 4/10/2020 Any Intensive Care as of 4/10/2020 Deaths as of 4/10/2020
<10 13 3 0 0
10-19 36 2 0 0
20-29 343 25 4 0
30-39 433 60 14 3
40-49 497 95 23 2
50-59 594 166 45 15
60-69 566 217 73 24
70-79 351 190 56 42
80-89 178 120 27 27
90+ 57 26 5 15
Total 3,068 904 247 128

Results by county

Wisconsin County Positive as of 4/10/2020 Negative as of 4/10/2020 Deaths as of 4/10/2020
Adams 2 75 0
Ashland 1 57 0
Barron 6 406 0
Bayfield 3 80 0
Brown 55 724 1
Buffalo 2 105 1
Burnett 0 45 0
Calumet 4 163 0
Chippewa 18 539 0
Clark 7 94 0
Columbia 24 442 1
Crawford 3 113 0
Dane 313 5,317 12
Dodge 18 461 0
Door 8 92 0
Douglas 7 256 0
Dunn 8 512 0
Eau Claire 21 1,051 0
Florence 2 5 0
Fond du Lac 52 815 2
Forest 0 23 0
Grant 4 217 1
Green 9 177 0
Green Lake 0 85 0
Iowa 4 138 0
Iron 1 18 1
Jackson 10 110 0
Jefferson 21 435 0
Juneau 5 182 0
Kenosha 147 1,074 1
Kewaunee 1 55 0
La Crosse 25 1,098 0
Lafayette 2 50 0
Langlade 0 51 0
Lincoln 0 105 0
Manitowoc 3 158 0
Marathon 12 348 0
Marinette 3 122 0
Marquette 2 92 0
Menominee 1 8 0
Milwaukee 1,575 6,760 77
Monroe 8 371 0
Oconto 3 130 0
Oneida 5 149 0
Outagamie 29 525 2
Ozaukee 71 503 9
Pepin 0 69 0
Pierce 7 234 0
Polk 1 120 0
Portage 4 155 0
Price 0 39 0
Racine 100 857 3
Richland 4 153 0
Rock 51 929 2
Rusk 3 66 0
Sauk 25 371 2
Sawyer 1 98 0
Shawano 5 144 0
Sheboygan 33 506 2
St. Croix 7 226 0
Taylor 0 53 0
Trempealeau 1 246 0
Vernon 0 188 0
Vilas 4 67 0
Walworth 35 361 0
Washburn 0 75 0
Washington 67 917 3
Waukesha 193 1,952 6
Waupaca 3 165 1
Waushara 2 69 0
Winnebago 25 584 1
Wood 2 245 0
Total 3,068 33,225 128

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