The Perfect Enemy | COVID-19 in Wisconsin: Steady numbers

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MADISON, Wis. (WBAY) – Wisconsin’s COVID-19 numbers continue to hold steady, but we’re starting to see fewer tests coming back positive for the COVID-19 virus.

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) reports the 7-day average of new cases is 1,775 after another 1,837 cases were confirmed by the latest test results. We’ve been mostly in that 1700 to 1900 range since before Memorial Day — with a very brief surge over 2,000 after the holiday weekend. Ten counties in WBAY’s wider viewing area saw a double-digit increase in cases, nine saw their totals go up by a single digit, while Menominee County did not report any new cases.

A total 1,490,094 people have ever tested positive for the coronavirus in Wisconsin (some of these individuals might have tested positive more than once, but they are only counted as a new case once).

The positivity rate has fallen to 12.3% from 13.2% just a couple of days ago. The positivity rate is the percentage of all COVID-19 tests in the last 7 days that were positive. It’s still high but trending in the right direction.

Three recent deaths were reported to the DHS. That’s below the 7-day average of 4 deaths per day. One of those people was in Winnebago County. Since the start of the pandemic, 13,054 people have died in our state, or 0.88% of all cases (only heart disease and cancer kill more people per capita, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).

We did the math showing Wisconsin averaged almost 35 hospitalizations per day for COVID-19 over the past week. The hospitalization rate is down to 4.13% of all cases since the pandemic began, a new low since we started tracking this on April 20, 2020.

A day ago, the Wisconsin Hospital Association reported 398 people hospitalized for COVID-19, 3 fewer than a day earlier, with 66 of them in intensive care units, which is one more than the day before. In the Northeast health care region, hospitals had 39 of those patients, 3 more than Tuesday, with 4 in ICU, which was unchanged. Fox Valley hospitals were treating 15 COVID-19 patients, with none of them in ICU — 1 fewer patient in ICU and 1 fewer person hospitalized. We’ll get updated patient numbers from the WHA later Thursday.

Thursday’s Vaccinations by Age Group

5 to 11: 28.1% received vaccine/25.3% completed vaccinations/0.0% received booster
12 to 17: 62.0% received vaccine/58.5% completed vaccinations/20.4% received booster
18 to 24: 60.7% received vaccine/55.1% completed vaccinations/19.8% received booster
25 to 34: 64.6% received vaccine/60.0% completed vaccinations/25.8% received booster
35 to 44: 69.5% received vaccine/66.1% completed vaccinations/33.4% received booster
45 to 54: 71.8% received vaccine/69.1% completed vaccinations/38.4% received booster
55 to 64: 78.2% received vaccine/75.8% completed vaccinations/49.8% received booster
65 and up: 85.3% received vaccine/82.7% completed vaccinations/68.2% received booster

Thursday’s Vaccinations by County Population

County (Population) (Health region)	% of population with at least 1 dose	% of population completed series
Brown (264,610) (NE)	65.9%	63.4%
Calumet (50,209) (FV)	57.0%	55.0%
Dodge (87,336)	52.7%	50.6%
Door (27,889) (NE)	79.0%	75.2%
Florence (4,298) (NE)	53.2%	50.6%
Fond du Lac (102,902) (SE)	56.0%	53.6%
Forest (8,960)	53.0%	50.5%
Green Lake (18,908) (FV)	57.6%	55.0%
Kewaunee (20,386) (NE)	52.8%	51.4%
Langlade (19,119)	54.1%	52.1%
Manitowoc (78,757) (NE)	60.8%	58.6%
Marinette (40,262) (NE)	53.7%	51.5%
Menominee (4,546) (FV)	81.2%	77.9%
Oconto (38,383) (NE)	53.1%	51.4%
Outagamie (188,766) (FV)	64.5%	61.9%
Shawano (40,786) (FV)	48.1%	46.5%
Sheboygan (115,240) (SE)	63.2%	60.8%
Waupaca (50,664) (FV)	55.7%	53.8%
Waushara (24,326) (FV)	46.4%	44.5%
Winnebago (171,631) (FV)	62.5%	59.7%
NORTHEAST REGION (474,585) (NE)	299,510 (63.1%)	287,921 (60.7%)
FOX VALLEY REGION (549,836) (FV)	331,352 (60.3%)	317,977 (57.8%)
WISCONSIN (5,832,655)	3,760,813 (64.5%)	3,575,471 (61.3%)

To find free COVID-19 vaccination sites near you, text your ZIP Code to 438829. Visit wbay.com/vaccine for a list of health care organizations offering vaccine shots.

THURSDAY’S COUNTY CASE AND DEATH TOTALS*

Brown – 73,275 cases (+76) (428 deaths) (+1)
Calumet – 11,966 cases (+8) (100 deaths)
Dickinson (Mich.)** – 5,176 cases (+33) (88 deaths)
Dodge – 25,242 cases (+12) (295 deaths)
Door – 6,925 cases (+11) (61 deaths)
Florence – 837 cases (+1) (17 deaths)
Fond du Lac – 30,816 cases (+24) (262 deaths) (+1)
Forest – 2,524 cases (+7) (48 deaths)
Gogebic (Mich.)** – 2,845 cases (+20) (40 deaths)
Green Lake – 4,493 cases (+5) (55 deaths)
Iron (Mich.)** – 2,398 cases (+16) (71 deaths)
Kewaunee – 4,698 cases (+3) (42 deaths)
Langlade – 5,129 cases (+7) (75 deaths)
Manitowoc – 18,090 cases (+16) (161 deaths)
Marinette – 10,054 cases (+23) (108 deaths)
Menominee – 1,958 cases (15 deaths)
Menominee (Mich.)** – 4,085 cases (+31) (61 deaths)
Oconto – 9,558 cases (+6) (97 deaths)
Outagamie – 44,308 cases (+51) (361 deaths)
Shawano – 10,260 cases (+3) (131 deaths) (+2)
Sheboygan – 30,782 cases (+28) (272 deaths)
Waupaca – 11,823 cases (+10) (199 deaths)
Waushara – 5,228 cases (+6) (70 deaths)
Winnebago – 46,539 cases (+64) (338 deaths) (+1)

* You can find cases and deaths for all 72 Wisconsin counties on the DHS County Data website and for Michigan counties on the Michigan Department of Health COVID-19 website. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services and Wisconsin Hospital Association publish updates Mondays through Fridays.

** Michigan Department of Health updates county information on Wednesdays.

Cases and deaths are from state COVID-19 reports, which may differ from local health department numbers. The Wisconsin DHS reports cases from all health departments within a county’s boundaries, including tribal, municipal and county health departments; county websites may not. Also, public health departments update their data at various times, whereas the DHS freezes the numbers it receives by the same time every day to compile the afternoon report.