Despite some encouraging trends, Wisconsin is not flattening the coronavirus curve, and as Thanksgiving approaches, hospitals and public health agencies are urging people to stay home, in order to decrease the spread of COVID-19.
And for the first time, Wisconsin reported more than 100 deaths from COVID-19 in a single day on Tuesday.
The state Department of Health Services on Tuesday reported 6,202 new cases and 104 deaths*, bringing the death toll to 3,115.
Your #COVID19_WI update with another record we did not want to break — a record high number of newly reported deaths — 104. Our sympathies go out to all who have lost loved ones.
Please stay home and stay safe this #holiday weekend: https://t.co/NeSgrEvq8D pic.twitter.com/leTxrL5GJW— WIDeptHealthServices (@DHSWI) November 24, 2020
The average number of new daily cases over the last seven days — 5,732 — is down from 6,500 last Wednesday. Cases may be plateauing, but with Thanksgiving coming, the expectation is that asymptomatic carriers will gather and further spread the coronavirus.
“We are far from out of the woods, and people need to to double down. People need to continue what they’re doing, and do it more,” Department of Health Services Secretary-designee Andrea Palm said. “Where we are in our seven day average . . . is still as high as New York City was this spring, when they were overwhelming their hospitals.”
The state’s chief medical officer, Dr. Ryan Westergaard, said positive cases are not climbing straight up, compared to where the state was a week ago.
“That being said, the level of transmission and the number of cases is critically high. So the easiest answer to the question ‘are we flattening the curve’ is ‘no.'” Westergaard explained, adding that there are still high rates of new infections from people who don’t know they’re infected.
“Most cases that are being transmitted are from people that haven’t yet been tested, haven’t yet been notified by contact tracer that they’ve been exposed, and that’s what makes it such a dangerous situation.”
On Monday, the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients stood at 1,999, the first time since since November 8 that the number had dropped below 2,000.
*Daily reported death totals do not mean those deaths occurred in a single day, but are instead all deaths not previously reported.
