State COVID-19 cases surpass 30,000
More than 30,000 people in Wisconsin have tested positive for the coronavirus since the pandemic began.
State health officials reported 579 new coronavirus cases Friday, bringing the total to 30,317. On Thursday, Gov. Tony Evers urged Wisconsin residents to avoid gatherings and stay home on the Fourth of July weekend.
Meanwhile, the Milwaukee Health Department on Friday reported the number of coronavirus cases in Milwaukee had been trending in the right direction until this week when the positivity rate nearly doubled.
Ahead of the holiday weekend, the department said it has been monitoring the city’s response to the pandemic with a color system and has determined the impact of the virus went from “yellow” to “red” or from a 7.8% positivity rate to 12.2%.
The city plans to reassess its situation with cases on July 17.
One area of improvement has been the percentage of coronavirus patients in hospitals, which has been in the “green” for the last two weeks. According to the city, hospitals in the greater Milwaukee area are not in crisis and the hospitalization rate is about 5%.
Area hospitals have enough personal protective equipment for staff to last between eight and 28 days, which is in the “yellow” and has remained steady since last week.
The rest of the indicators are marked as “yellow.” The average number of daily tests at Barack Obama High School and UMOS has gone from 928 to 1,682.
In regard to contact tracing, the Health Department says it has been able to successfully reach city residents within three attempts and the average time to make the first contact attempt is 1.4 days.
Recent trends reported by state health officials Friday included:
The frequency of new cases has almost doubled recently. The seven-day average increased to 510, higher than it’s ever been; it was well below 300 as recently as June 17.
The last two weeks have also brought an increase in the percentage of newly taken tests that have been positive for the coronavirus. Of more than 10,000 results reported Friday, 5.7% were positive. That number was below 3% through much of early June.
Hospitalized patient levels have been flat at their lowest levels since the Wisconsin Hospital Association started tracking them in early April. They’d gone up eight Friday, to 244, but down 18 compared with a week earlier. Seventyfive patients were in intensive care, down from 95 a week earlier.
Fewer deaths are being reported. Three new deaths Friday brought the total to 796. In the last 13 days, newly reported deaths averaged four. Starting with the first COVID-19 deaths in March, they had averaged eight.
Many recent cases have involved 20-somethings, who are less likely than older age groups to be hospitalized by the virus or to die from it.
Health officials have said that spread among 20-somethings is a serious concern, though. They can still be hospitalized (211 have been) and killed (eight have died). The long-term effects of the virus aren’t known yet. And they might spread the virus to more vulnerable age groups, or people with preexisting conditions.
Also worth noting about the recent trends: Hospitalizations and deaths can occur long after transmission and symptom onset, so a recent increase in transmission may not show up in those numbers for days or weeks yet.