Coronavirus milestone
Wisconsin surpasses 25,000 cases in state’s latest tally.
More than 25,000 people have tested positive for the coronavirus in Wisconsin, of whom nearly 20,000 are listed as “recovered” and 745 have died.
Monday’s update from the state Department of Health Services included 249 new confirmed cases — bringing the total to 25,068 — and one more death.
COVID-19 patients are considered by DHS to have recovered when their symptoms have resolved, or they’ve been released from isolation, or more than 30 days have elapsed since their symptom onset or diagnosis.
Positive tests made up 3.8% of Monday’s newly reported test results.
That positivity rate has steadily fallen since the state ramped up testing capacity throughout May. It was higher than 3% only once from June 5 to June 17 but has risen beyond 3% in four of the past five days.
At its recent peak of 4.6% on Sunday, test positivity was still lower than the state’s cumulative rate of 5% since the pandemic began.
There were 246 known COVID-positive patients in Wisconsin hospitals as of Monday morning, according to an online dashboard published by the Wisconsin Hospital Association. Of those, 93 were in intensive care. Another 169 inpatients were awaiting test results.
2 UW athletes test positive for COVID-19; most prisoners have recovered
The University of Wisconsin announced that two of the 117 athletes tested for the coronavirus during a first wave of those returning to campus tested positive for COVID-19.
The two athletes are now self-isolating, part of a process UW put into place before bringing members of the football and volleyball teams back to campus, the first step of returning student-athletes to Madison.
A UW spokesman said contact tracing will be carried out to identify anyone who has been in contact with the two athletes, and UW Athletics’ Infection Response Team will monitor their re
covery.
Members of the basketball team are expected to voluntarily return later in June, followed by hockey teams. Additional athletes will return for voluntary workouts as the summer progresses, provided all goes well.
Meanwhile, Wisconsin’s corrections agency announced Monday that nearly everyone with a confirmed case of the coronavirus in a prison has recovered.
Of the 268 inmates who tested positive, 261 have recovered. And 63 of the 66 prison workers who tested positive in recent months also have recovered, according to the state Department of Corrections.
The vast majority of cases among inmates were in Waupun Correctional Institution, where 228 people tested positive.
Global cases passed 9 million Monday, according to Johns Hopkins University. Nearly 2.3 million of those were reported in the U.S., where 120,000 people have died because of COVID-19.
Reporter Molly Beck of the Journal Sentinel contributed to this article.
Contact Matt Piper at 920-810-7164 mpiper@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @matthew_piper.