Jeramey Jannene
WI Daily

October Starts With Single-Day COVID-19 Case Record

Wisconsin's COVID-19 surge shows no signs of slowing.

By - Oct 1st, 2020 04:22 pm
COVID-19. Credit: U.S. Army.

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

September was Wisconsin’s worst month on record for the number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, and October is getting off to an even worse start.

Thursday afternoon the Department of Health Services reported a record number of new cases, 2,887, and of people newly hospitalized with a case of the disease, 109.

The new cases come from 14,361 processed tests. The number of tests processed in the past seven days climbed to 80,488, but it is still the second-lowest total reported in the past week. A high of 99,920 was recorded for the week ending August 6th.

While testing isn’t at a record high, cases are. The seven-day case total climbed to 16,837. The high before September brought a surge of cases with it was 6,512 for the week of July 26th.

The seven- and 14-day positive case rates now stand at 20.92 and 18.96 percent, both of which are all-time highs. The figure is a measure of the percentage of tests that indicate a new case of the disease. The 14-day figure hit a low of 2.69 percent 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.

The lagging indicators of the disease’s spread, hospitalizations and deaths, are now both trending upward.

The Wisconsin Hospital Association reported 669 active COVID-19-positive hospitalizations on Thursday afternoon. The figure is down 14 from Wednesday’s record high, but is up 174 from a week ago.

DHS reports that 109 people were newly hospitalized in the past 24 hours, bringing the outbreak total to 7,409. The one-day total is a record.

DHS reported 21 deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the statewide total to 1,348. It’s the third-highest one-day total since the pandemic began, eclipsed only by the 27 reported yesterday and 22 reported May 27th. There have been 532 deaths recorded in Milwaukee County. An average of 7.27 deaths per day have been reported across the state over the past 30 days, the highest average since June 27th.

Brown County has recorded 3,762.9 cases per 100,000 residents (up from 3,663.1). Forest County has record 3,234.6 cases per 100,000 residents (up from 3,201.9). According to DHS data, 3,121.1 out of every 100,000 Milwaukee County residents have tested positive for COVID-19 (up from 3,086.3) since the outbreak began.

Kewaunee (3,037.2), Outagamie (2,766.6), La Crosse (2,708.5) and Oconto (2,700.1) are the only other counties with more than 2,700 cases per 100,000 residents.

The statewide average of cases per 100,000 residents rose to 2,165 (up from 2,115.1). Wisconsin has recorded a per-capita rate of 511.4 per 100,000 in the past two weeks according to the DHS activity level report released Wednesday.

A total of 125,161 residents have tested positive for the disease.

Charts and Maps

Data from DHS.

Percent of COVID-19 cases resulting in hospitalization within age group

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** Cases per 100,000 people (counties)
Case fatality percentage***
Adams 10/1/2020 265 4,118 16 4 1,293.00 1.50%
Ashland 10/1/2020 133 2,960 10 2 838.4 1.50%
Barron 10/1/2020 498 9,085 23 6 1,085.40 1.20%
Bayfield 10/1/2020 120 3,129 9 1 789.3 0.80%
Brown 10/1/2020 9,796 69,789 184 66 3,762.90 0.70%
Buffalo 10/1/2020 147 2,654 4 2 1,088.20 1.40%
Burnett 10/1/2020 208 2,886 8 4 1,346.50 1.90%
Calumet 10/1/2020 1,342 10,436 42 5 2,607.00 0.40%
Chippewa 10/1/2020 595 15,034 28 0 926.5 0.00%
Clark 10/1/2020 436 5,676 40 8 1,255.00 1.80%
Columbia 10/1/2020 698 15,593 51 3 1,221.80 0.40%
Crawford 10/1/2020 184 4,463 4 0 1,111.40 0.00%
Dane 10/1/2020 10,201 199,479 471 43 1,930.20 0.40%
Dodge 10/1/2020 2,003 23,193 40 17 2,245.40 0.80%
Door 10/1/2020 384 6,559 28 3 1,368.90 0.80%
Douglas 10/1/2020 522 8,121 5 0 1,189.80 0.00%
Dunn 10/1/2020 633 8,370 25 1 1,413.70 0.20%
Eau Claire 10/1/2020 2,016 22,604 22 7 1,959.30 0.30%
Florence 10/1/2020 99 907 0 2 2,239.30 2.00%
Fond du Lac 10/1/2020 2,296 23,980 55 14 2,221.10 0.60%
Forest 10/1/2020 297 1,817 3 6 3,234.60 2.00%
Grant 10/1/2020 1,111 13,628 44 19 2,121.30 1.70%
Green 10/1/2020 563 8,452 24 3 1,527.20 0.50%
Green Lake 10/1/2020 323 3,993 55 0 1,692.20 0.00%
Iowa 10/1/2020 198 5,677 24 0 832 0.00%
Iron 10/1/2020 143 1,522 7 1 2,447.00 0.70%
Jackson 10/1/2020 164 6,517 4 1 794.4 0.60%
Jefferson 10/1/2020 1,543 19,740 78 8 1,822.30 0.50%
Juneau 10/1/2020 428 8,976 4 2 1,590.60 0.50%
Kenosha 10/1/2020 3,611 38,054 415 68 2,146.50 1.90%
Kewaunee 10/1/2020 627 4,094 7 2 3,037.20 0.30%
La Crosse 10/1/2020 3,205 26,119 146 3 2,708.50 0.10%
Lafayette 10/1/2020 331 3,617 7 0 1,960.60 0.00%
Langlade 10/1/2020 236 3,499 1 2 1,193.30 0.80%
Lincoln 10/1/2020 261 5,095 13 1 917.7 0.40%
Manitowoc 10/1/2020 1,236 14,576 123 5 1,540.10 0.40%
Marathon 10/1/2020 1,633 21,197 107 15 1,212.00 0.90%
Marinette 10/1/2020 1,024 10,116 31 8 2,501.30 0.80%
Marquette 10/1/2020 309 3,368 12 1 2,009.40 0.30%
Menominee 10/1/2020 99 2,561 0 0 2,259.20 0.00%
Milwaukee 10/1/2020 29,478 256,498 1,802 538 3,121.10 1.80%
Monroe 10/1/2020 595 10,430 14 3 1,293.50 0.50%
Oconto 10/1/2020 1,025 9,015 56 4 2,700.10 0.40%
Oneida 10/1/2020 519 8,684 7 3 1,445.20 0.60%
Outagamie 10/1/2020 5,085 42,291 248 30 2,766.60 0.60%
Ozaukee 10/1/2020 1,406 18,584 101 19 1,591.20 1.40%
Pepin 10/1/2020 68 1,501 2 0 925.3 0.00%
Pierce 10/1/2020 456 8,029 246 7 1,095.20 1.50%
Polk 10/1/2020 263 9,141 10 2 599.1 0.80%
Portage 10/1/2020 1,545 13,253 40 7 2,184.70 0.50%
Price 10/1/2020 135 2,830 3 0 977.7 0.00%
Racine 10/1/2020 5,061 66,885 496 98 2,592.70 1.90%
Richland 10/1/2020 166 5,093 13 4 937.2 2.40%
Rock 10/1/2020 2,670 36,704 194 33 1,666.00 1.20%
Rusk 10/1/2020 66 2,374 7 1 454.1 1.50%
Sauk 10/1/2020 965 19,064 58 4 1,539.40 0.40%
Sawyer 10/1/2020 229 4,644 0 1 1,382.10 0.40%
Shawano 10/1/2020 1,080 9,820 7 1 2,617.50 0.10%
Sheboygan 10/1/2020 1,970 23,653 72 18 1,720.30 0.90%
St. Croix 10/1/2020 970 16,550 64 9 1,100.20 0.90%
Taylor 10/1/2020 206 2,921 3 4 1,001.00 1.90%
Trempealeau 10/1/2020 686 6,905 19 2 2,338.70 0.30%
Vernon 10/1/2020 257 6,413 5 1 848.5 0.40%
Vilas 10/1/2020 243 4,616 7 1 1,122.10 0.40%
Walworth 10/1/2020 2,645 24,156 158 35 2,577.60 1.30%
Washburn 10/1/2020 116 2,980 6 1 731.7 0.90%
Washington 10/1/2020 2,750 25,085 83 36 2,044.80 1.30%
Waukesha 10/1/2020 7,777 82,545 735 92 1,950.90 1.20%
Waupaca 10/1/2020 1,203 10,646 118 21 2,325.50 1.70%
Waushara 10/1/2020 413 6,899 6 3 1,699.70 0.70%
Winnebago 10/1/2020 4,317 39,664 162 32 2,549.20 0.70%
Wood 10/1/2020 878 15,194 50 5 1,186.10 0.60%

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