Wisconsin COVID-19 deaths pass 7,500

MADISON, Wis. (WBAY) - More than 7,500 people have died from COVID-19 in Wisconsin, the Department of Health Services (DHS) reported Thursday. Four more deaths, including 3 within the past month but just reported to the state, bring the death toll to 7,503. One death was in Winnebago County. The state is averaging 5 deaths per day over the past week. By our calculations, the death rate is unchanged, with 1.17% of cases being fatal.

Wisconsin has nearly 643,000 confirmed cases (642,969) of the COVID-19 virus since it first appeared in our state in February, 2020. The DHS reports the state is averaging 1,223 new cases every day over the past 7 days. Out of all the tests, including people tested multiple times, an average 6.9% came back positive during the last 7-day period.

State numbers show 113 more people were hospitalized with COVID-19 since Wednesday’s report. This is the third day in a row with hospitalizations over 100, excluding Monday, which tallied up the entire weekend. Wisconsin hasn’t had 3 straight days with hospitalizations in triple digits since December 29-December 31. The state says 34,734 people have ever been hospitalized with COVID-19 in Wisconsin, which is 5.4% of all cases. We’d been below 5.4% since mid-October.

Taking discharges and deaths into consideration, the Wisconsin Hospital Association reports 712 COVID-19 patients are in hospitals around the state, 15 fewer than Wednesday, with 222 of these patients in ICU, which is one more than a day earlier. Northeast health care region hospitals reported 61 patients, with 19 in ICU; that’s 1 fewer patient in ICU and 2 fewer patients overall. Fox Valley hospitals have 54 COVID-19 patients, including 12 in ICU; that’s 3 more in ICU and 1 more patient overall than Wednesday.

Earlier Thursday, the DHS went public with a web page making side-by-side comparisons of cases, hospitalizations and deaths for people who are fully vaccinated and the rest of the population. (Read more details in our separate report on the new comparisons.)

The data show that in July, as the highly-contagious delta variant became the dominant COVID-19 strain, people who weren’t fully vaccinated were 3 times more likely to test positive for the virus, 3.7 times more likely to be hospitalized, and 10 times more likely to die.

Even though there are breakthrough cases, DHS Secretary-designee Karen Timberlake says, “The COVID-19 vaccines are still doing their job by stopping the spread of many new infections, and by preventing severe illness, hospitalization, and death.”

The DHS reported Thursday that 50.4% of the state’s population has completed their vaccination series -- either one dose of Johnson & Johnson or two doses of Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. That’s 2,932,137 people, out of 53.6% of the population that’s at least started the vaccination process, or 3,122,465 people.

These percentages include Wisconsin’s population that aren’t eligible for the vaccine: kids under 12 years old. The state says 64.5% of Wisconsin’s adults have had at least one shot of vaccine, including 60.9% of adults who’ve been completely vaccinated.

The DHS says exactly 50% of residents in the 8-county Fox Valley health care region received at least one dose of vaccine. The region includes Calumet, Green Lake, Menominee, Outagamie, Shawano, Waupaca, Waushara and Winnebago counties. State numbers show 47.1% of those counties’ combined populations completed their vaccine series.

The DHS reported Wednesday that 12 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties have a very high virus activity level, compared to 4 counties a week earlier. The other 60 counties are said to have high activity level. There are no counties where the spread of the virus is low or moderate. You can track the rate of activity level for Wisconsin counties during the past few weeks in the table below.

CLICK HERE to view the state’s full presentation of COVID-19 data.

ThedaCare held free COVID-19 testing clinics in the Fox Valley this week, offering both rapid testing, with most results in under 15 minutes, and lab testing, with most results in 24 to 48 hours. The remaining clinics are:

• Thursday, August 19: Christ the Rock Community Church, W6254 US HWY 10, Menasha, 8 A.M. to 4 P.M.
• Friday, August 20: Culver Family Welcome Center at University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, 625 Pearl Ave., Oshkosh, 8 A.M. to 4 P.M.

VACCINATIONS BY COUNTY POPULATION (THURSDAY)

THURSDAY’S COUNTY CASE AND DEATH TOTALS (counties with new cases or deaths are indicated in bold) **

• Brown – 33,107 cases (+24) (259 deaths)
• Calumet – 6,085 cases (+13) (51 deaths)
• Dickinson (Mich.)* - 2,459 cases (59 deaths)
• Dodge – 12,397 cases (+21) (178 death)
• Door – 2,725 cases (+11) (30 deaths)
• Florence - 460 cases (13 deaths)
• Fond du Lac – 13,099 cases (+30) (133 deaths)
• Forest - 1,014 cases (+6) (24 deaths)
• Gogebic (Mich.)* - 1,122 cases (24 deaths)
• Green Lake - 1,689 cases (+2) (21 deaths)
• Iron (Mich.)* – 1,013 cases (43 deaths)
• Kewaunee – 2,448 cases (+3) (28 deaths)
• Langlade - 2,122 cases (+3) (35 deaths)
• Manitowoc – 7,886 cases (+20) (77 deaths)
• Marinette - 4,361 cases (+3) (68 deaths)
• Menominee (Mich.)* - 1,857 cases (41 deaths)
• Menominee – 828 cases (+1) (11 deaths)
• Oconto – 4,711 cases (+20) (63 deaths)
• Outagamie – 21,520 cases (+45) (227 deaths)
• Shawano – 4,928 cases (+8) (73 deaths)
• Sheboygan – 14,448 cases (+18) (155 deaths)
• Waupaca – 5,158 cases (+6) (125 deaths)
• Waushara – 2,274 cases (+9) (36 deaths)
• Winnebago – 19,076 cases (+41) (205 deaths) (+1)

* The Wisconsin Department of Health Services and Wisconsin Hospital Association do not publish updates on weekends. Michigan Department of Health only updates information on Tuesdays and Fridays.

** Cases and deaths are from state COVID-19 reports, which may differ from local health department numbers. The Wisconsin DHS reports cases from all health departments within a county’s boundaries, including tribal, municipal and county health departments; county websites may not. Also, public health departments update their data at various times, whereas the DHS freezes the numbers it receives by the same time every day to compile the afternoon report.

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