The Wisconsin Department of Health Services reported three additional deaths due to coronavirus in the state on Tuesday. A total of 517 lives have now been lost in Wisconsin.
Confirmed cases increased by 279, to 15,863.
Overall tests that were positive remained at four percent the same percentage as on Monday. There are now 55 labs running tests, with a daily capacity of more than 14,000.
We are at now at 54 labs and a daily capacity of more than 14,000 #COVID19_WI tests. If you have any symptoms or think you’ve been exposed, call your provider or log on to find a testing site: https://t.co/PnFZSsB1EE pic.twitter.com/10ljmKoOy6
— WIDeptHealthServices (@DHSWI) May 26, 2020
Julie Willems Van Dijk, Deputy Secretary with DHS said the percentage of positive COVID-19 tests in Wisconsin has remained relatively steady, since the end of the Safer at Home order.
“Ranging between about four percent and eight percent of all tests done in a given day are positive, so obviously if you do 9.000 tests in a day, your five percent is going to be a lot more than if you only do 5,000 tests in a day,” she said Tuesday. “So the actual number will vary from day-to-day, but the percentage seems to be in that range.”
Willems Van Dijk said we should be cautious as the state opens up, and continue to practice safe social distancing, because the coronavirus is still out there in our communities.
“Clearly we’ve seen with Safer at Home, people have had fewer contacts. We know as we open up people will have more contacts, but that’s why we’re really encouraging people not to go crazy with going out and seeing everybody you’ve missed, until we’ve had a little bit of time to see how things are working as we open up bit by bit.”
“Because if you do happen to have either asymptomatic or mild symptoms, and you’ve seen lots of different people, that means you would have been part of spreading this disease much wider and perhaps starting the fire up all over again.”
