Wisconsin adds 1,018 COVID-19 cases; no new deaths
For the third time this week, Wisconsin reported more than 1,000 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in a single day.
The state Department of Health Services reported 1,018 more people have tested positive for COVID-19, which makes up 5.8% of the 17,456 tests processed since Thursday.
No new deaths were reported Friday. Overall, 878 people in Wisconsin have died due to COVID-19, or around 2% of all people who have tested positive.
Wisconsin also reported more than 1,000 confirmed cases Tuesday (1,117) and Thursday (1,052).
As of Friday, 46,917 people in Wisconsin have tested positive for COVID-19. Of those cases, around 21%, or 9,688 are considered by DHS to be active.
The total number of tests processed between Thursday and Friday is the highest amount in the last two weeks.
On Friday, the Dane County health department reported 17,000 new negative test results that had been part of a 10-day backlog, which resulted in inflated percentages of positive tests during that time frame.
The thousands of results have not yet been analyzed or verified but the agency wanted to include them in the public data set to ensure a more accurate percentage of positive test results — a data point the public uses to determine the intensity of virus infection in an area.
The backlog did not affect the reporting of positive tests, the agency said.
The change comes a day after the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Dane County and other health departments were experiencing delays in fully processing negative test results that could have distorted state data.
A Department of Health Services spokeswoman did not immediately respond to questions about how the Dane County changes affect the state's data.
Health Services Secretary Andrea Palm said the public should instead, for now, rely on a seven-day average of the percentage of positive tests to find the most accurate picture of the virus spread in Wisconsin.
But in Dane County, that 7-day average was considerably lower — just 2% — once the backlog of negative test results were factored in. DHS has not answered which county departments are experiencing delays like Dane County's.
The Wisconsin Hospital Association did not post updated hospitalization numbers on its website for the third day in a row as the state responds to new guidance from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on how and where to report hospital capacity data.