71 of 72 Counties Have “Critically High” COVID-19 Levels
Milwaukee County now has 26th-worst all-time per-capita outbreak.
COVID-19. Credit: U.S. Army.
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services reported 6,635 new cases on Thursday from 19,220 processed tests.
A new Activity Level Report from DHS labels 71 of the state’s 72 counties with a “Critically High” level of disease. The measure, introduced last week as cases surged to record levels, indicates a county has had more than one percent of its residents test positive for the virus in the past two weeks (over 1,000 cases per 100,000 residents).
The only county not to eclipse that 1,000 case per 100,000 resident threshold is Green County, which had a rate of 938.6. The two-week statewide average is 1,519.4 cases per 100,000 residents, the highest on record.
The seven-day case total stands at 45,084, below yesterday’s record 45,946. September, when Wisconsin’s surge started, accounted for 46,671 cases in its entirety. The seven-day testing total stands at 129,831, below Wednesday’s record 133,019 tests.
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.
“Since our surge in cases started we been saying it would get worse before it gets better, and you can see it happening,” said DHS Secretary-designee Andrea Palm during a press briefing Wednesday.
DHS reported 236 people were newly hospitalized in the past 24 hours in its daily data release. A total of 15,336 people have required hospitalization since the outbreak began, a 1,565 in the past week.
The Wisconsin Hospital Association reported Wednesday 2,217 people were actively hospitalized with a confirmed case of the disease, a decrease of 60 from Tuesday’s record high, but an increase of 115 over a week ago. Thirty days ago the total was 1,192. WHA updates its dashboard at 3:30 p.m., after the time of publication.
Seventeen patients were in the Alternate Care Facility in West Allis as of Wednesday’s data release, below Tuesday’s record of 23.
DHS reported 83 deaths Thursday, the second-highest total on record. A total of 2,793 Wisconsin residents have died as a result of the virus, including 680 in Milwaukee County.
Since September, Milwaukee County has gone from having the worst per-capita outbreak to the 26th worst in the state, even as its case and hospitalization load has surged to record levels.
Menominee County has recorded 12,072.1 cases per 100,000 residents (up from 11,980.8). Shawano County has recorded 8,354.3 cases per 100,000 residents (up from 8,269.5). Dodge, Brown, Oconto, Forest, Fond du Lac, Kewaunee, Calumet, Winnebago, Langlade, Sheboygan, Outagamie, Waushara, Trempealeau, Jackson, Waupaca, Florence, Barron, Eau Claire, Marinette, Marathon, Juneau, Marquette and Racine counties are the remaining counties leading Milwaukee.
According to DHS data, 6,263.3 out of every 100,000 Milwaukee County residents have tested positive for COVID-19 since the outbreak began (up from 6,172.9).
The statewide average of cases per 100,000 residents rose to 5,854.9 (up from 5,740.1). Wisconsin has recorded a per-capita rate of 1,519.4 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 †† | |
| Adams | 923 | 5,809 | 62 | 6 | 1 | 4,503.50 | 29.3 | 0.70% |
| Ashland | 546 | 4,925 | 24 | 7 | 0 | 3,442.00 | 44.1 | 1.30% |
| Barron | 3,023 | 14,489 | 47 | 35 | 0 | 6,588.90 | 76.3 | 1.20% |
| Bayfield | 587 | 4,837 | 17 | 6 | 0 | 3,860.80 | 39.5 | 1.00% |
| Brown | 20,563 | 102,664 | 484 | 126 | 4 | 7,898.90 | 48.4 | 0.60% |
| Buffalo | 647 | 3,690 | 11 | 4 | 0 | 4,789.40 | 29.6 | 0.60% |
| Burnett | 638 | 4,458 | 22 | 9 | 0 | 4,130.30 | 58.3 | 1.40% |
| Calumet | 3,732 | 15,323 | 165 | 22 | 1 | 7,250.00 | 42.7 | 0.60% |
| Chippewa | 3,894 | 21,946 | 39 | 43 | 2 | 6,063.50 | 67 | 1.10% |
| Clark | 1,824 | 8,057 | 141 | 31 | 3 | 5,250.30 | 89.2 | 1.70% |
| Columbia | 2,917 | 21,524 | 190 | 10 | 1 | 5,106.10 | 17.5 | 0.30% |
| Crawford | 752 | 5,815 | 10 | 4 | 0 | 4,542.40 | 24.2 | 0.50% |
| Dane | 23,869 | 263,742 | 650 | 69 | 2 | 4,516.40 | 13.1 | 0.30% |
| Dodge | 7,377 | 32,055 | 360 | 65 | 4 | 8,269.70 | 72.9 | 0.90% |
| Door | 1,464 | 10,728 | 102 | 10 | 0 | 5,219.10 | 35.6 | 0.70% |
| Douglas | 1,484 | 11,929 | 21 | 1 | 0 | 3,382.40 | 2.3 | 0.10% |
| Dunn | 2,217 | 13,694 | 90 | 5 | 0 | 4,951.20 | 11.2 | 0.20% |
| Eau Claire | 6,778 | 35,890 | 91 | 48 | 5 | 6,587.40 | 46.7 | 0.70% |
| Florence | 292 | 1,274 | 16 | 11 | 0 | 6,604.80 | 248.8 | 3.80% |
| Fond du Lac | 7,612 | 33,757 | 317 | 38 | 2 | 7,363.60 | 36.8 | 0.50% |
| Forest | 677 | 3,066 | 42 | 15 | 1 | 7,373.10 | 163.4 | 2.20% |
| Grant | 3,101 | 18,674 | 173 | 54 | 2 | 5,920.90 | 103.1 | 1.70% |
| Green | 1,476 | 11,890 | 26 | 5 | 1 | 4,003.90 | 13.6 | 0.30% |
| Green Lake | 1,086 | 5,864 | 199 | 5 | 0 | 5,689.40 | 26.2 | 0.50% |
| Iowa | 1,117 | 8,330 | 29 | 4 | 0 | 4,693.50 | 16.8 | 0.40% |
| Iron | 314 | 2,005 | 61 | 6 | 3 | 5,373.00 | 102.7 | 1.90% |
| Jackson | 1,380 | 8,467 | 17 | 4 | 0 | 6,684.80 | 19.4 | 0.30% |
| Jefferson | 4,621 | 27,829 | 270 | 33 | 1 | 5,457.30 | 39 | 0.70% |
| Juneau | 1,698 | 12,019 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 6,310.40 | 26 | 0.40% |
| Kenosha | 8,088 | 55,626 | 799 | 119 | 3 | 4,807.70 | 70.7 | 1.50% |
| Kewaunee | 1,510 | 5,702 | 41 | 14 | 0 | 7,314.50 | 67.8 | 0.90% |
| La Crosse | 6,919 | 38,594 | 258 | 32 | 0 | 5,847.10 | 27 | 0.50% |
| Lafayette | 973 | 5,019 | 15 | 2 | 0 | 5,763.20 | 11.8 | 0.20% |
| Langlade | 1,417 | 5,371 | 71 | 23 | 7 | 7,164.90 | 116.3 | 1.60% |
| Lincoln | 1,666 | 7,935 | 74 | 21 | 4 | 5,857.50 | 73.8 | 1.30% |
| Manitowoc | 4,317 | 22,265 | 579 | 29 | 4 | 5,379.20 | 36.1 | 0.70% |
| Marathon | 8,605 | 37,310 | 683 | 111 | 12 | 6,386.30 | 82.4 | 1.30% |
| Marinette | 2,635 | 13,815 | 206 | 25 | 0 | 6,436.60 | 61.1 | 0.90% |
| Marquette | 970 | 4,657 | 107 | 7 | 0 | 6,307.70 | 45.5 | 0.70% |
| Menominee | 529 | 3,513 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 12,072.10 | 45.6 | 0.40% |
| Milwaukee | 59,156 | 356,102 | 3,985 | 680 | 9 | 6,263.30 | 72 | 1.10% |
| Monroe | 2,120 | 14,234 | 26 | 11 | 0 | 4,608.90 | 23.9 | 0.50% |
| Oconto | 2,918 | 12,943 | 199 | 23 | 3 | 7,686.60 | 60.6 | 0.80% |
| Oneida | 2,032 | 12,807 | 58 | 25 | 1 | 5,658.10 | 69.6 | 1.20% |
| Outagamie | 12,694 | 61,540 | 603 | 110 | 0 | 6,906.40 | 59.8 | 0.90% |
| Ozaukee | 4,102 | 29,060 | 502 | 33 | 3 | 4,642.40 | 37.3 | 0.80% |
| Pepin | 403 | 2,201 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 5,483.70 | 27.2 | 0.50% |
| Pierce | 1,698 | 11,960 | 321 | 11 | 4 | 4,078.30 | 26.4 | 0.60% |
| Polk | 1,722 | 13,844 | 16 | 4 | 0 | 3,922.60 | 9.1 | 0.20% |
| Portage | 4,209 | 20,153 | 178 | 33 | 2 | 5,951.70 | 46.7 | 0.80% |
| Price | 624 | 4,162 | 27 | 3 | 0 | 4,519.10 | 21.7 | 0.50% |
| Racine | 12,302 | 85,460 | 1,199 | 146 | 3 | 6,302.20 | 74.8 | 1.20% |
| Richland | 756 | 7,538 | 18 | 11 | 0 | 4,268.30 | 62.1 | 1.50% |
| Rock | 8,173 | 55,271 | 295 | 62 | 2 | 5,099.70 | 38.7 | 0.80% |
| Rusk | 705 | 3,605 | 21 | 5 | 0 | 4,850.70 | 34.4 | 0.70% |
| Sauk | 3,080 | 28,224 | 91 | 14 | 0 | 4,913.40 | 22.3 | 0.50% |
| Sawyer | 727 | 6,124 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 4,387.70 | 36.2 | 0.80% |
| Shawano | 3,447 | 13,285 | 97 | 42 | 1 | 8,354.30 | 101.8 | 1.20% |
| Sheboygan | 8,021 | 34,457 | 274 | 48 | 2 | 7,004.30 | 41.9 | 0.60% |
| St. Croix | 3,711 | 25,628 | 175 | 19 | 0 | 4,209.00 | 21.5 | 0.50% |
| Taylor | 1,019 | 4,376 | 44 | 11 | 1 | 4,951.40 | 53.4 | 1.10% |
| Trempealeau | 1,993 | 9,223 | 29 | 11 | 0 | 6,794.60 | 37.5 | 0.60% |
| Vernon | 918 | 9,916 | 6 | 7 | 0 | 3,031.00 | 23.1 | 0.80% |
| Vilas | 1,052 | 6,550 | 26 | 11 | 0 | 4,857.80 | 50.8 | 1.00% |
| Walworth | 5,202 | 31,809 | 735 | 45 | 2 | 5,069.40 | 43.9 | 0.90% |
| Washburn | 524 | 4,494 | 25 | 2 | 0 | 3,305.40 | 12.6 | 0.40% |
| Washington | 7,546 | 38,636 | 846 | 62 | 4 | 5,611.00 | 46.1 | 0.80% |
| Waukesha | 22,536 | 123,110 | 1,762 | 168 | 5 | 5,653.20 | 42.1 | 0.70% |
| Waupaca | 3,450 | 15,316 | 371 | 78 | 23 | 6,669.10 | 150.8 | 2.30% |
| Waushara | 1,653 | 8,854 | 47 | 7 | 0 | 6,803.00 | 28.8 | 0.40% |
| Winnebago | 12,229 | 61,844 | 921 | 98 | 4 | 7,221.40 | 57.9 | 0.80% |
| Wood | 3,512 | 22,243 | 215 | 20 | 2 | 4,744.30 | 27 | 0.60% |
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