One-third of tests positive in state
Another day, another spike in coronavirus cases in Wisconsin.
On Sunday, just more than onethird of COVID tests reported were positive.
The 4,280 new confirmed cases account for 33.5% of the 12,761 tests that came back Sunday, according to state health officials.
The state Department of Health Services reported 11 more deaths, bringing the state’s death toll to 2,312 people.
As of Saturday afternoon, 1,806 people were hospitalized with COVID-19. Of those, 373 were in the ICU. Another 260 are awaiting test results, according to DHS.
Sunday’s cases come a day after the state passed 7,000 daily cases and broke its daily record.
The statistics beyond Wisconsin were just as dire.
The U.S. set another daily record for coronavirus cases and the world surpassed 50 million total cases Sunday as President-elect Joe Biden promised to do what President Donald Trump could not: “Get this virus under control.”
The U.S. recorded 126,742 cases Saturday, the third day in a row the total exceeded 120,000, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
The United States, with about 4.3% of the world population, has about 20% of the cases.
Daily U.S. deaths are also rising: More than 1,000 were reported Saturday.
In his victory speech Saturday night, Biden said, “We cannot repair the economy, restore our vitality, or relish life’s most precious moments — hugging a grandchild, birthdays, weddings, graduations, all the moments that matter most to us — until we get this virus under control.”
Biden pledged to name a group of leading scientists and experts on Monday to turn his coronavirus plan into an “action blueprint” that starts on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20.
Former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb predicted Sunday that when Biden is sworn in the nation will probably “be at the apex of what we’re going through right now.”
Gottlieb also said on “Face the Nation” that it’s unlikely the U.S. will have a traditional inauguration that brings together hundreds of thousands of people on the National Mall.
In Wisconsin, more than 2.1 million people have been tested statewide for the virus. Of the 267,410 residents who have tested positive:
• 77.4%, or 206,944, have “recovered,” DHS reported, meaning either there is documented proof their symptoms have resolved or it’s been 30 days since their diagnosis.
• 58,119, or 21.7%, are considered “active,” meaning they aren’t recovered and haven’t died.
• 2,312, or 0.9%, have died.