COVID update - cases may be plateauing, but deaths are starting to rise again

I take a look at Wisconsin's COVID 19 statistics statewide based on a Saturday-to-Saturday basis. And when doing so this week, we see the same trends as previous weeks, with one bad exception.

First of all, the number of weekly cases continued to increase, nearing 6,400. Although if there's a bright spot, it's that the rate of increase is starting to level off a bit.

Likewise, we are seeing the number of tests continue to increase, and the percentage of positive tests stayed at 7.0% instead of going higher, so perhaps these are signs of plateaus in the resurgence of COVID for the state.

Here's the downside. The increase in positive COVID cases that started to pick up in late June may now be starting to translate in to more deaths a month later, as the last full week of July saw more than double the reported COVID deaths of the previous week.

While you can shrug and say "only 2% of new cases die a month later", that still means about 127 of the people who got COVID last week in Wisconsin would die, which would be a whole lot more than any one week of death that we have had. It also would likely mean hospital capacities and bed availability may start to get near their limits in August if things don't slow down.

And while I didn't include the county numbers (I've kept that on a Monday-Monday basis, and so I'll keep it that way), it looks like Dane County has been getting its early-July breakout under control, but it continues on the rise throughout most of the 262 and 920, and Milwaukee County's new cases are still coming in at a high level.

So things are far from stable, and as July winds down, we need to be making progress in Wisconsin against this virus in August for us to have any hope of getting back towards normal as the weather turns cooler and more people stay inside across America's Dairyland.