1% of WI Residents Tested Positive for COVID-19 In Past Two Weeks

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services reported 5,922 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday afternoon from 15,440. The figure is the second highest one-day total on record, trailing only Wednesday’s 5,935 cases.

A record 34,924 cases have been reported in the past seven days, a total that is up over 500% in two months and eclipses the number of cases reported in March, April, May and June combined.

The seven-day positive case rate, the percentage of tests that confirm a new case of the disease, stands at 30.83%. The 14-day average at 29.69%. 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.

An activity level report, updated Wednesday, shows that 1,060.6 out of every 100,000 Wisconsin residents tested positive for the disease in the past 14 days, a record high. The figure can be more easily understood as one percent of all state residents.

The state defines a “very high” activity level as a two-week burden in excess of 350 cases per 100,000 residents and for the first time all 72 counties exceed that figure.

The case surge is overwhelming health department contact tracing efforts and leading to record hospitalization levels and daily death totals.

The Wisconsin Hospital Association reported that a record 1,774 people are actively hospitalized with a confirmed case of the disease, an increase of 27 over Wednesday and 321 over a week.

DHS reported 223 people were newly hospitalized in the past 24 hours in its daily data release. A total of 12,310 people have required hospitalization since the outbreak began, 1,307 in the past week.

DHS reported 38 deaths Thursday. A total of 2,194 Wisconsin residents have died as a result of the virus, including 606 in Milwaukee County. Officials confirmed last week that the total includes only people where a medical examiner determined the disease was a contributing factor in the death.

A record average of 26.5 deaths per day have been reported over the past 30 days. Thirty days ago the figure stood at 8.23.

Since September, Milwaukee County has gone from having the worst per-capita outbreak to the 19th worst in the state, even as its case and hospitalization load has surged to record levels.

Menominee County has recorded 8,603.4 cases per 100,000 residents (up from 8,192.6). Shawano County has recorded 6,837.1 cases per 100,000 residents (up from 6,735.3). Brown, Oconto, Kewaunee, Dodge, Forest, Calumet, Winnebago, Waushara, Langlade, Outagamie, Fond du Lac, Waupaca, Florence, Sheboygan, Marinette and Marquette counties are the remaining counties leading Milwaukee.

According to DHS data, 4,955.6 out of every 100,000 Milwaukee County residents have tested positive for COVID-19 since the outbreak began (up from 4,860.5).

The statewide average of cases per 100,000 residents rose to 4,323.2 (up from 4,220.7). Wisconsin has recorded a per-capita rate of 1,060.6 cases per 100,000 residents in the past two weeks according to the DHS activity level report released Wednesday.

Charts and Maps

Confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths by gender

Confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths by race

Confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths by ethnicity

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	670	5,328	51	6	0	3,269.10	29.3	0.90%
Ashland	350	4,332	12	4	0	2,206.40	25.2	1.10%
Barron	1,586	12,839	34	8	0	3,456.80	17.4	0.50%
Bayfield	342	4,200	14	2	0	2,249.40	13.2	0.60%
Brown	17,257	95,871	424	105	3	6,628.90	40.3	0.60%
Buffalo	387	3,347	7	3	0	2,864.80	22.2	0.80%
Burnett	373	3,885	15	6	0	2,414.70	38.8	1.60%
Calumet	3,047	14,097	85	18	0	5,919.30	35	0.60%
Chippewa	2,434	19,779	38	26	2	3,790.10	40.5	1.10%
Clark	1,155	7,282	89	20	3	3,324.60	57.6	1.70%
Columbia	2,081	20,020	155	7	1	3,642.70	12.3	0.30%
Crawford	450	5,320	7	1	0	2,718.20	6	0.20%
Dane	17,295	246,986	598	50	2	3,272.50	9.5	0.30%
Dodge	5,325	29,635	235	37	3	5,969.40	41.5	0.70%
Door	1,057	9,693	89	9	0	3,768.10	32.1	0.90%
Douglas	947	10,687	6	1	0	2,158.50	2.3	0.10%
Dunn	1,439	11,964	45	1	0	3,213.70	2.2	0.10%
Eau Claire	4,556	31,717	51	28	1	4,427.90	27.2	0.60%
Florence	235	1,186	15	8	0	5,315.50	181	3.40%
Fond du Lac	5,708	30,880	184	25	0	5,521.80	24.2	0.40%
Forest	546	2,718	30	11	0	5,946.40	119.8	2.00%
Grant	2,262	17,294	89	40	1	4,318.90	76.4	1.80%
Green	1,127	10,919	20	5	0	3,057.20	13.6	0.40%
Green Lake	866	5,441	125	4	0	4,536.90	21	0.50%
Iowa	683	7,517	28	2	0	2,869.90	8.4	0.30%
Iron	241	1,840	50	5	1	4,123.90	85.6	2.10%
Jackson	746	7,756	11	2	0	3,613.60	9.7	0.30%
Jefferson	3,334	25,567	142	21	0	3,937.40	24.8	0.60%
Juneau	942	11,105	7	5	0	3,500.80	18.6	0.50%
Kenosha	6,078	50,860	631	94	2	3,612.90	55.9	1.50%
Kewaunee	1,253	5,294	33	10	0	6,069.60	48.4	0.80%
La Crosse	5,035	34,278	169	26	0	4,254.90	22	0.50%
Lafayette	636	4,597	10	1	0	3,767.10	5.9	0.20%
Langlade	1,143	4,977	46	12	2	5,779.40	60.7	1.00%
Lincoln	1,117	7,270	47	13	2	3,927.30	45.7	1.20%
Manitowoc	3,292	20,390	404	18	3	4,102.00	22.4	0.50%
Marathon	6,105	33,302	468	70	8	4,530.90	52	1.10%
Marinette	2,057	12,712	147	18	0	5,024.70	44	0.90%
Marquette	767	4,337	92	5	0	4,987.60	32.5	0.70%
Menominee	377	3,297	0	1	0	8,603.40	22.8	0.30%
Milwaukee	46,805	327,945	2,993	606	5	4,955.60	64.2	1.30%
Monroe	1,421	13,054	23	8	0	3,089.30	17.4	0.60%
Oconto	2,400	12,023	116	18	3	6,322.10	47.4	0.80%
Oneida	1,476	11,992	25	14	0	4,109.90	39	0.90%
Outagamie	10,476	57,055	416	84	0	5,699.70	45.7	0.80%
Ozaukee	2,877	26,270	278	26	3	3,256.00	29.4	0.90%
Pepin	216	1,982	3	0	0	2,939.20	0	0.00%
Pierce	963	10,504	255	7	1	2,313.00	16.8	0.70%
Polk	786	12,156	16	3	0	1,790.40	6.8	0.40%
Portage	3,281	18,449	101	23	1	4,639.50	32.5	0.70%
Price	450	3,811	22	3	0	3,259.00	21.7	0.70%
Racine	8,979	80,384	930	122	2	4,599.80	62.5	1.40%
Richland	550	7,072	16	9	0	3,105.20	50.8	1.60%
Rock	6,091	50,733	267	48	2	3,800.60	30	0.80%
Rusk	325	3,177	15	1	0	2,236.10	6.9	0.30%
Sauk	2,227	26,019	69	8	0	3,552.60	12.8	0.40%
Sawyer	463	5,672	5	4	0	2,794.40	24.1	0.90%
Shawano	2,821	12,431	41	37	1	6,837.10	89.7	1.30%
Sheboygan	5,757	31,276	212	32	1	5,027.30	27.9	0.60%
St. Croix	2,383	22,568	102	14	0	2,702.80	15.9	0.60%
Taylor	627	3,920	40	8	0	3,046.60	38.9	1.30%
Trempealeau	1,277	8,389	25	6	0	4,353.60	20.5	0.50%
Vernon	607	8,953	5	2	0	2,004.20	6.6	0.30%
Vilas	744	6,054	22	7	0	3,435.50	32.3	0.90%
Walworth	3,830	29,502	385	39	2	3,732.40	38	1.00%
Washburn	304	4,004	7	2	0	1,917.60	12.6	0.70%
Washington	5,456	35,089	407	50	3	4,056.90	37.2	0.90%
Waukesha	14,675	111,114	1,192	135	3	3,681.20	33.9	0.90%
Waupaca	2,779	14,283	300	55	10	5,372.00	106.3	2.00%
Waushara	1,426	8,380	14	5	0	5,868.80	20.6	0.40%
Winnebago	9,943	57,196	513	75	2	5,871.50	44.3	0.80%
Wood	2,208	19,837	129	15	2	2,982.70	20.3	0.70%