NEWS

Wisconsin officials report 478 new COVID-19 cases as seven-day average hits lowest point in a month

Matt Piper
USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

Even though Wisconsin set a single-day record for COVID-19 cases Saturday, the rate of new cases has inched down from its late-July peak, and the seven-day average reached its lowest point in a month.

The Department of Health Services reported 478 positive results out of more than 9,900 tests Wednesday, for a 4.8% positivity rate.

That's the fewest new cases since Aug. 3 and the lowest positivity rate since Aug. 6.

The seven-day average of newly reported cases fell to 760, its lowest since July 13 (when it was 697).

Five more people died fighting the virus, according to DHS, bringing the state's official toll to 1,011.

A new feature on the health department's data website showed Wednesday that the positivity rate in recent days might have been slightly distorted — lower than it should be — because of delays analyzing and manually confirming test results.

These delays have led to backlogs of negative tests, which cause more recent positive results to be mismatched with older negative results in the manually confirmed numbers reported each day by DHS. That means that some days the positivity rate has been higher than it ought to be, and some days it's been lower.

Preliminary data from Tuesday's tests show 457 of 6,083 people tested positive, or a rate of 7.5%. Including this preliminary data, the seven-day average of test positivity is 7.4%, compared to 6.3% using the confirmed test results.

RELATED:Wisconsin's COVID-19 death toll passes 1,000. Here's a look at who is dying, and how the rate compares to other leading causes of death.

Despite the recent dip in new cases, COVID-19's activity level remains "high" in Wisconsin — and, specifically, in all but six of its counties — according the health department's regular Wednesday update to its weekly ratings.

DHS bases the activity ratings on a combination of total new cases per 100,000 people over the past two weeks, and the percent change in new cases between the past seven days and the seven days before that.

The state as a whole saw 194 cases per 100,000 people over the past two weeks.

The highest rates over the past 14 days were in Marinette (428), Barron (355), Sawyer (332), Lafayette (314), Racine (287), Waupaca (282), Waukesha (281), Milwaukee (278) and Washington (274).

The lowest were in Pepin (27), Forest (33), Green Lake (37) and Buffalo (37).

Some counties saw extreme jumps in new cases. Barron County confirmed 163 of its total 308 cases in the past two weeks. Sawyer confirmed 55 of 82 total, and Marinette confirmed 175 of 432.

The following are the state's activity level ratings by county. Parentheses reflect a change in the activity level from the previous week's rating.

  • High: Adams, Ashland, Barron, Bayfield (up), Brown, Burnett, Calumet, Chippewa, Clark, Columbia, Crawford, Dane, Dodge, Door, Douglas, Dunn, Eau Claire, Florence (up), Fond du Lac, Grant, Green, Iowa, Iron, Jackson, Kenosha, Kewaunee, La Crosse, Lafayette, Langlade, Manitowoc, Marathon, Marinette, Marquette, Menominee, Milwaukee, Monroe, Oconto, Oneida, Outagamie, Ozaukee, Pierce, Polk, Portage, Price, Racine, Richland, Rock (up), Rusk (up), Sauk, Sawyer, Shawano, Sheboygan, St. Croix, Taylor, Trempealeau, Vernon, Vilas, Walworth, Washburn, Washington, Waukesha, Waupaca, Waushara, Winnebago and Wood
  • Medium: Buffalo (down), Forest (down), Green Lake, Juneau (down), Lincoln (down) and Pepin (down)

Of 62,263 Wisconsin residents who have tested positive for COVID-19, 52,350 — or 84% — are listed as having "recovered" by DHS.

DHS considers somebody recovered if they have either: 1. documented proof that their symptoms have resolved or their isolation has ended, or 2. more than 30 days have passed since diagnosis. In rare cases, recovery may take longer than 30 days.

At least 5,125 of those residents who tested positive have been hospitalized, though DHS doesn't know whether somebody was hospitalized in about a third of cases.

As of mid-afternoon Tuesday, Wisconsin hospitals reported having 364 total COVID-19 patients — down from 414 on Monday afternoon — with 111 in intensive care.

Another 221 inpatients were awaiting COVID-19 test results.

Globally, more than 20.4 million cases were confirmed as of mid-Wednesday, according to Johns Hopkins University, and nearly 745,000 people had died.

The U.S. accounted for roughly 5.2 million cases and 165,000 deaths.

Contact Matt Piper at (920) 810-7164 or mpiper@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @matthew_piper.