Coronavirus Positivity Rates In The U.S.: How Wisconsin Ranks

MILWAUKEE, WI — A new ranking compares coronavirus positivity rates in each state and highlights how many nursing homes are without a week's supply of personal protective equipment.

Wisconsin has the 23rd-highest positivity rate in the nation, the report shows. A positivity rate is the percentage of people who test positive for coronavirus among those overall who have been tested.

The report also shows that Wisconsin nursing homes are in dire need of personal protective equipment, such as N95 masks, surgical masks and gowns. The report says 15 percent of all nursing homes have a one-week supply of N95 masks, nine percent have a one-week supply of surgical masks and 15 percent have a one-week supply of protective gowns. Those figures are among the lowest in the U.S., the study shows.

Using data from Johns Hopkins University, the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living compiled the report, which shows the number of nursing homes in each state. Since July 26, there have been 33 states with a positive test rate of more than five percent.

On July 22, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced that, “[they] will begin requiring, rather than recommending, that all nursing homes in states with a 5% positivity rate or greater test all nursing home staff each week.”

If implemented, 11,640 nursing homes in the country would be required to conduct the weekly testing, the report shows.

Mark Parkinson, the president and CEO of the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living, said that governors and state health agencies "need to take immediate action to protect our seniors and health care heroes by ensuring long term facilities have adequate supplies of PPE (including N95 masks) and staff support as well as facilitating expedited test results for our residents and caregivers,"

"We also need members of the public to do their part to help reduce spread by wearing a mask in public and continuing to practice social distancing. We all have a duty to defend our nation’s greatest generation and their essential caregivers,” Parkinson said in a statement.