Jeramey Jannene
WI Daily

State Officials Predict Worsening Outbreak With No Behavior Changes

Weekly totals for cases, hospitalizations and deaths all set all-time highs.

By - Oct 30th, 2020 08:31 pm
COVID-19. Credit: U.S. Army.

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

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services reported 5,096 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 from 18,692 processed tests on Friday afternoon.

“The President has said we’re rounding the corner. There is little data to support that,” said Governor Tony Evers Friday morning in imploring Wisconsin residents to stay home whenever possible and limit their social circle to their own household for the time being.

Besides a call for people to mind their personal health to limit the virus’ effects and its spread, Evers has a simple message for those that must go out.

“People have to wear a freaking mask, simple as that,” said the Governor.

The seven-day positive case rate, the percentage of tests that confirm a new case of the disease, stands at 28.86%, a record high. It 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.

A record 29,614 Wisconsin residents have tested positive for the disease in the past week. Since the pandemic began 220,092 people have tested positive.

“In these two months, our seven-day average has increased by more than 500 percent,” said DHS Secretary-designee Andrea Palm of the surge in cases.

Lagging indicators of the disease’s spread continue to set new highs, while state health officials warn that hospitalization and death surges are connected to earlier record case reports.

Dr. Ryan Westergaard, chief medical officer of the DHS Bureau of Communicable Diseases, called it a “nightmare scenario” during a Tuesday afternoon press briefing.

Friday morning he expressed dismay with how things are going.

“Personally and frankly I am surprised and disappointed that we have failed as much as we have to slow the virus. I say that because it is important to understand that there is still time to turn this around,” said Westergaard.

He said left unchecked the virus would infect 70 to 80 percent of Wisconsin residents. “It’s probably fewer than 10% of Wisconsin residents that have been infected,” said Westergaard, estimating those with confirmed and unconfirmed cases.

“I think it’s so important we understand we can turn the corner,” he said. “If we don’t do that it would not be surprising for numbers to continue to get worse.”

In the meantime, the numbers continue to get worse.

The Wisconsin Hospital Association reported a record 1,546 people are actively hospitalized with a confirmed case of the disease. That’s up 93 in the past 24 hours and 303 since last week.

The state reported that 142 people were newly hospitalized in the past 24 hours. A total of 11,145 people have required hospitalization since the outbreak began, 1,107 in the past week.

A record eight patients are in the Alternate Care Facility in West Allis.

DHS reported 24 deaths Friday. A total of 1,972 Wisconsin residents have died as a result of the virus, including 585 in Milwaukee County. Officials confirmed Tuesday that the total includes only people where a medical examiner determined the disease was a contributing factor in the death.

An average of 21.5 deaths per day have been reported over the past 30 days, the second-highest total on record beyond yesterday’s 21.6. Thirty days ago the figure stood at 7.27.

Westergaard said the case fatality rate has fallen because of a broadening age distribution in those who contract the virus. “Anyone who is infected can become severely ill,” he said, noting that death wasn’t the only negative outcome. “I think the short lesson is deaths are on the rise because cases on the rise.”

Since September, Milwaukee County has gone from having the worst per-capita outbreak to the 15th worst in the state, even as its case and hospitalization load has surged to record levels.

Menominee County has recorded 7,576.4 cases per 100,000 residents (up from 7,188.5). Shawano County has recorded 6,226.4 cases per 100,000 residents (up from 6,073.7). Brown, Oconto, Kewaunee, Calumet, Forest, Winnebago, Langlade, Outagamie, Dodge, Florence, Waupaca and Fond du Lac counties are the remaining counties leading Milwaukee.

According to DHS data, 4,416.4 out of every 100,000 Milwaukee County residents have tested positive for COVID-19 since the outbreak began (up from 4,371.9).

The statewide average of cases per 100,000 residents rose to 3,807.1 (up from 3,719). Wisconsin has recorded a per-capita rate of 891.7 cases per 100,000 residents in the past two weeks according to the DHS activity level report released Wednesday.

Charts and Maps

Data from DHS.

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 † Number of probable deaths ‡ Cases per 100,000 people (counties) Deaths per 100,000 people (counties) Case fatality percentage ††
“la crosse” 1 0 0 0 0 0.00%
Adams 562 5,127 39 4 0 2,742.10 19.5 0.70%
Ashland 291 4,140 10 3 0 1,834.50 18.9 1.00%
Barron 1,223 12,338 32 7 0 2,665.60 15.3 0.60%
Bayfield 256 4,022 10 2 0 1,683.80 13.2 0.80%
Brown 15,983 93,519 358 101 3 6,139.50 38.8 0.60%
Buffalo 309 3,226 7 3 0 2,287.40 22.2 1.00%
Burnett 320 3,699 15 6 0 2,071.60 38.8 1.90%
Calumet 2,772 13,570 66 11 0 5,385.00 21.4 0.40%
Chippewa 1,865 18,966 36 21 2 2,904.10 32.7 1.10%
Clark 962 7,023 77 17 3 2,769.10 48.9 1.80%
Columbia 1,863 19,427 138 7 0 3,261.10 12.3 0.40%
Crawford 367 5,166 7 1 0 2,216.90 6 0.30%
Dane 15,521 239,629 573 49 1 2,936.80 9.3 0.30%
Dodge 4,453 28,635 166 28 1 4,991.90 31.4 0.60%
Door 896 9,336 66 8 0 3,194.20 28.5 0.90%
Douglas 820 10,270 5 2 0 1,869.00 4.6 0.20%
Dunn 1,130 11,430 40 1 0 2,523.60 2.2 0.10%
Eau Claire 3,738 30,174 38 16 1 3,632.90 15.6 0.40%
Florence 216 1,150 11 7 0 4,885.80 158.3 3.20%
Fond du Lac 4,817 29,609 153 20 0 4,659.80 19.3 0.40%
Forest 494 2,573 19 11 0 5,380.10 119.8 2.20%
Grant 1,974 16,823 81 34 0 3,769.00 64.9 1.70%
Green 999 10,488 20 5 0 2,710.00 13.6 0.50%
Green Lake 785 5,267 118 4 0 4,112.50 21 0.50%
Iowa 523 7,168 29 1 0 2,197.60 4.2 0.20%
Iron 208 1,801 45 4 0 3,559.20 68.4 1.90%
Jackson 564 7,497 8 1 0 2,732.00 4.8 0.20%
Jefferson 2,880 24,622 119 15 0 3,401.20 17.7 0.50%
Juneau 824 10,828 7 4 0 3,062.30 14.9 0.50%
Kenosha 5,321 48,793 552 83 2 3,162.90 49.3 1.60%
Kewaunee 1,122 5,129 26 7 0 5,435.00 33.9 0.60%
La Crosse 4,473 32,771 164 22 0 3,780.00 18.6 0.50%
Lafayette 576 4,456 9 1 0 3,411.70 5.9 0.20%
Langlade 1,045 4,811 29 11 1 5,283.90 55.6 1.10%
Lincoln 872 6,907 38 12 2 3,065.90 42.2 1.40%
Manitowoc 2,951 19,639 350 16 3 3,677.10 19.9 0.50%
Marathon 5,127 31,718 381 54 4 3,805.10 40.1 1.10%
Marinette 1,808 12,186 130 14 0 4,416.40 34.2 0.80%
Marquette 647 4,179 82 2 0 4,207.30 13 0.30%
Menominee 332 3,231 0 0 0 7,576.40 0 0.00%
Milwaukee 41,932 317,267 2,677 585 5 4,439.70 61.9 1.40%
Monroe 1,200 12,643 21 7 0 2,608.80 15.2 0.60%
Oconto 2,196 11,711 94 17 3 5,784.70 44.8 0.80%
Oneida 1,327 11,461 17 13 0 3,695.00 36.2 1.00%
Outagamie 9,592 55,224 388 78 0 5,218.70 42.4 0.80%
Ozaukee 2,420 25,162 266 25 2 2,738.80 28.3 1.00%
Pepin 162 1,887 3 0 0 2,204.40 0 0.00%
Pierce 765 9,977 235 7 0 1,837.40 16.8 0.90%
Polk 597 11,564 15 3 0 1,359.90 6.8 0.50%
Portage 2,904 17,754 81 21 1 4,106.40 29.7 0.70%
Price 382 3,693 19 3 0 2,766.50 21.7 0.80%
Racine 7,889 78,568 835 113 2 4,041.40 57.9 1.40%
Richland 488 6,927 16 9 0 2,755.20 50.8 1.80%
Rock 5,408 48,587 245 46 2 3,374.40 28.7 0.90%
Rusk 232 3,061 12 1 0 1,596.30 6.9 0.40%
Sauk 1,884 25,146 67 7 0 3,005.50 11.2 0.40%
Sawyer 400 5,472 3 3 0 2,414.10 18.1 0.80%
Shawano 2,569 12,066 19 26 1 6,226.40 63 1.00%
Sheboygan 5,010 30,260 128 29 1 4,375.00 25.3 0.60%
St. Croix 1,974 21,396 100 11 0 2,238.90 12.5 0.60%
Taylor 523 3,773 28 7 0 2,541.30 34 1.30%
Trempealeau 1,101 8,072 23 3 0 3,753.60 10.2 0.30%
Vernon 528 8,587 5 2 0 1,743.30 6.6 0.40%
Vilas 612 5,824 20 7 0 2,826.00 32.3 1.10%
Walworth 3,502 28,793 301 39 1 3,412.80 38 1.10%
Washburn 261 3,849 7 2 0 1,646.40 12.6 0.80%
Washington 4,721 33,989 389 43 2 3,510.40 32 0.90%
Waukesha 13,040 106,746 1,050 125 3 3,271.10 31.4 1.00%
Waupaca 2,519 13,742 260 44 7 4,869.40 85.1 1.70%
Waushara 1,065 8,170 8 5 0 4,383.10 20.6 0.50%
Winnebago 9,165 55,328 471 66 2 5,412.10 39 0.70%
Wood 1,834 19,019 113 10 2 2,477.50 13.5 0.50%

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One thought on “WI Daily: State Officials Predict Worsening Outbreak With No Behavior Changes”

  1. Thomas Sepllman says:

    Let’s try a different headline Insert the correct percentages. Call me and I will work with you on this Tom Spelman 414 403 1341

    9000 NEW CASES Today that means that in the next month of these 9000 150 people WILL DIE because MANY of YOU DID NOT DO YOUR PART of those 150 100 plus will be over the age of 60 so they WILL be someone parents or grandparents!!

    No sure what the hospitalization % is but lets say it is 8% figure out the impact slightly more complicated

    720 of those people will need a Hospital BED with a DOCTOR and a NURSE to staff it YOU ARE ASKING THEM to RISK there LIVES because YOU were too lazy or had to be politically correct or whatever to WEAR a FACE MASK!

    YOU who refuse to wear a mask FULLY expect to be taken care of by Doctors and Nurses who RISK THEIR LIVES FOR ?????

    Someone who thinks they know better
    Someone who wants to be politically correct
    Someone who is a Republican
    Someone who is a TRUMP follower
    Someone…….

    Illinois is posting WHERE folks are getting infected

    ON WHOSE HAND IS THIS BLOOD 70% of the Citizens what mask orders and WHO is fighting that LIST THE BASTARDS Send this out every day as a special notice an update it daily

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