And while last week had the highest amount of tests in a week for Wisconsin, at more than 80,000, the rate of those tests turning up positive hit the highest levels in more than 2 months.
COVID is being felt throughout most parts of the state, as shown by this map that the Wisconsin Department of Health Services produces every week, which indicates how severely COVID is hitting a certain area.
By the numbers, Milwaukee County had its first week of more than 2,000 new cases, and we also saw record cases in Waukesha and Kenosha Counties, and Racine County is seeing cases jump back to the major levels that it was seeing in late May.
Dane County is starting to come down from the records it was setting 2 weeks ago. But it still had its 4th straight week of 500 new cases or more, and that is significantly elevated compared to what Dane County had a month ago.
And the largest counties in northeastern Wisconsin all had notable upticks in new cases, with Outagamie County seeing them more than double in the last 3 weeks.
The only positive news on COVID-19 in Wisconsin is that the increased cases have yet to translate into more deaths. We remain near multi-month lows, although we are just starting to hit 4 weeks after weekly cases started coming back up, which seems to be around the time lag between testing positive and deaths.
That makes these next 2-3 weeks crucial in Wisconsin for a couple of reasons. Both in seeing if death totals start rising and hospital capacities start getting constrained, and in seeing if we can stop the spike in new COVID-19 cases, and start to get this thing under control as the start of school gets closer by the day.
And now Wisconsin has its first day of more than 1,000 new cases, at 1,117 today. And 13 new deaths reported, which is the highest one-day total for that in a month.
ReplyDeleteIt's not going in the right direction at all.