UPDATE: Channel3000.com reports that after the State Department of Health Services reported 842 positive coronavirus cases at about 2 pm, several counties reported additional infections and the number now stands at 906. Additionally, 15 people have died.
ORIGINAL STORY:
The state Department of Health Services Friday that 842 people have been tested positive for coronavirus infection in Wisconsin and 13 people had died. That represents an increase of 135 in 24 hours.
Five new fatalities reported overnight range in age from their 60s to their 80s, DHS Secretary-designee Andrea Palm said.
In a media briefing Friday, Palm cautioned against getting discouraged by increasing reports of positive cases, noting that there is a “lag time” between infection and testing. People testing positive today were already infected before the governor’s “Safer at Home” order went into effect Wednesday.
Palm reiterated that projections show 22,000 positive cases by April 8 if no social distancing measures were taken.
“Now is the time to do everything we can to keep that projection from coming true,” she said. “Please don’t get discouraged.”
Gov. Tony Evers said the coronavirus is hitting Milwaukee’s north side especially hard — so hard that the federal Center for Disease Control and Prevention has dispatched a team of researchers to the city.
“The severity of this disease among the African American community is a crisis within a crisis,” Evers said.
