The number of new confirmed coronavirus cases continues to rise — both as a raw number and as a percentage of those tested.
A total of 5,774 people in Wisconsin have tested positive for coronavirus infection, up by 338 from Friday. Overall, just over nine percent of those tested have been positive, up slightly from 8.9 percent yesterday. Of those tests processed in the past 24 hours, 11 percent were positive. Daily percentages have fluctuated between 8.5 and 11.5 percent over the past week.
That percentage would have to go down every day for 14 days before the state could implement the first phase of the Governor’s “Badger Bounce Back” plan.
Much of the increase over the past three days is driven by an outbreak in Green Bay. Brown County, where Green Bay is located, now has the highest rate of infection in the state — 720 cases, or 277.2 cases per 100,000 residents. That surpasses Milwaukee County, which has 264.4 cases per 100,000 residents.
Only two have died in Brown County, however.
A disproportionate impact among Latino people continues to rise, as they now make up 22 percent of those tested positive. Latino people make up about seven percent of the state’s population overall. About 25 percent of those tested positive are Black, compared to about six percent of the overall population.
Four more people passed away statewide in the last 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 266.
Hospitalizations continued a downward trend, with 337 people currently hospitalized, down from 361 yesterday. Of those, though, 319 — 94.6 percent — require mechanical ventilation. One hundred thirty seven are in intensive care units.
