COVID-19 activity remains high in Wisconsin

Every region in the state, except north central Wisconsin, is seeing high levels of COVID-19 activity, the Department of Health Services said Wednesday.

DHS began releasing measures of the activity for counties and healthcare emergency readiness coalitions on Tuesday, reporting that the regions of southeast, northeast and western Wisconsin were seeing high levels of activity.

The data released Wednesday show six regions with high levels of activity, with only north central Wisconsin seeing a “medium” activity level.

There were 22 counties reporting high levels of activity, 35 reporting medium levels and 15 reporting low levels.

There were 629 COVID-19 active facility-wide public health investigations reported Wednesday, an increase of 16 from last week. Investigations are considered active until 28 days have passed since the last possible COVID-19 exposure in a facility with no cases.

There were 214 long-term care facilities under investigation, 284 non-healthcare workplaces, 38 group housing facilities, 21 healthcare facilities and 72 other settings, which include adult or child day care centers, restaurants, event spaces and religious settings.

Of the 318 public health investigations into long-term care facilities, 146 had a single confirmed case and 229 had less than five cases. The median number of confirmed cases is two, the average is eight and the range is one to 100 confirmed cases.

There have been 119 public health investigations at nursing homes, including 71 active investigations.

There were 432 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported on Wednesday, bringing the state’s total to 25,763. Of the 10,070 test results reported, 4.3 percent were positive.

There were 757 deaths as of Wednesday, an increase of seven.

Wisconsin Health News is removing the password on all stories related to the coronavirus. For the latest developments follow us on Twitter at @wihealthnews or check out our website. For complete healthcare coverage, sign up for a free trial to our daily email newsletter.