Majority of counties in Wisconsin at ‘very high’ activity level for spread of COVID-19

MADISON, Wisconsin (Wisconsin) – The state Department of Health Services has called most counties in Wisconsin a “very high” level of activity for the spread of the disease, new data shows.

DHS officials said three counties remain at “critical” level, including Juneau County.

State and county health officials on Thursday recorded 2,701 * additional new cases of the virus, which is higher than Wednesday’s tally and the seven-day moving average of 2,492. Wisconsin’s lifetime total reached 516,357 * confirmed cases, and more than 28,000 of them remain active.

DHS officials said the seven-day positivity rate for new tests per person dropped by more than 1 percentage point to 27%. The equivalent of seven days for the total number of tests per day dropped slightly to 8.9%.

As of Thursday afternoon, more than 195,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine were given to people across Wisconsin. With the vaccine launch slow, Assembly Republicans are demanding to know how Gov. Tony Evers’ administration can speed up the process.

At least 5,378 * have died from complications from the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic, with 41 * new deaths confirmed on Thursday. DHS officials said 99 people had also been hospitalized in the past 24 hours. Of the state’s nearly 11,000 hospital beds, 17% are available for new patients.

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* News 3 now uses data from DHS and county dashboards to calculate daily cases and deaths. DHS releases new numbers every day at 2 p.m., and our newsroom continues to update our totals throughout the day with additional cases reported by each county. Using a combination of state and county data, News 3 Now is dedicated to providing the most comprehensive and up-to-date COVID-19 coverage.