Wisconsin tops 2,000 COVID-19 cases for 4th straight day
Wisconsin health officials on Sunday reported 2,217 new cases of the coronavirus, the fourth day in a row the state has confirmed more than 2,000 positive tests.
The update showed a positivity rate of 27.6 percent for the more than 8,000 COVID-19 test results processed in the last day. That's an indicator that many more people have infections than tests are revealing; keeping that rate below 5 percent is often cited as a goal by health officials.
Wisconsin reported a single-day record of 2,817 new cases on Saturday.
The COVID-19 death toll in Wisconsin remained at 1,281, as no new fatalities were reported Sunday.
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Sunday's case increase was more the double of that in Minnesota — and Minnesota's 1,077 new cases were based off more than 26,000 tests.
Wisconsin ranks third in the country behind North Dakota and South Dakota in the number of new virus cases per capita in the last two weeks, according to the COVID Tracking Project. The rolling average number of daily new cases has increased by 967 over that time, an increase of nearly 93 percent, according to figures compiled Saturday.
Over the course of the pandemic, 115,862 people have tested positive for the coronavirus in Wisconsin. About 82 percent of those people have recovered, while over 19,000 have active infections.
For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death.