NEWS

Wisconsin officials report 884 more COVID-19 cases as hospitalization data remains murky

Matt Piper
USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

Wisconsin health officials reported 884 new cases of COVID-19 and nine more deaths Wednesday, as the picture of current hospitalizations remains murky due to new federal reporting requirements.

Wednesday's increase in new cases was the highest since Sunday but still lower than the average seen in past weeks. The seven-day average of new cases was 842, compared to 930 on July 26.

Of 17,000 test results reported by the Department of Health Services on Wednesday, 5.2% were positive for COVID-19. It marked the third straight day below 6% after spiking to 9.6% on Sunday.

All told, 56,940 Wisconsin residents have tested positive for COVID-19 since the pandemic began.

Of those, 970 lost their lives. Deaths have continued to climb even as new cases have leveled off, as new cases from weeks past progress to more advanced stages. 

Fifty-nine deaths were reported in the past seven days, and 143 in the past 21 days — more than twice as many as in the 21 days before that (71).

But the picture of Wisconsin residents hospitalized by COVID-19 has been blurred in recent weeks, thanks in large part to hospital reporting changes ordered last month by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

There are two key measures of hospitalizations in Wisconsin.

First, the state health department uses a data system fed by local public health departments to try to tally the total number of Wisconsin residents who have been hospitalized since the start of the coronavirus outbreak.

As of Wednesday, that figure stood at 4,826, or 8.5% of all people who tested positive. But that number is imprecise: Whether hospitalization was required was unknown in more than a third of cases (19,301), and the system may be delayed somewhat as public health officials gather this information from various sources.

Second, Wisconsin's hospitals are asked to report a real-time snapshot of their current number of COVID-19 patients each day — a figure often included in these daily updates from USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin. But DHS Deputy Secretary Julie Willems Van Dijk said in a briefing with reporters Tuesday that they are "not yet completely accurate" after the changes ordered by HHS.

Two online dashboards based on these data — one published by DHS, the other by the Wisconsin Hospital Association — have been updated at different times of the day since the new reporting order took effect, and show different numbers for each day.

The WHA dashboard was last updated at 3 p.m. Tuesday and showed 327 current COVID-19 patients and 110 in intensive care, down from 345 and 120 on Monday.

The DHS dashboard was last updated at 11 a.m. Wednesday and showed 258 current COVID-19 patients with 96 in intensive care, including a drop from 197 to 121 in the southeast region alone overnight.

The peaks and valleys in recent days have been extreme: That's the fifth time the southeast region's total has fallen or increased by more than 75 in a day since July 21, after not doing so since shortly after the data first went live in April.

And while a DHS representative said by email that both dashboards are accurate to the time that the data is pulled and that the DHS dashboard is updated throughout the day to reflect significant changes, officials admit that it has been difficult to reconcile two data systems involved in the federal and state reports.

The two data systems are the federal system, called TeleTracking, and the state system, called EMResource. Hospitals can submit their data to either one or the other to meet federal requirements, but the state doesn't have access to the data if hospitals submit it through the TeleTracking system. For hospitals, reporting to the state is optional.

Another curveball thrown by the HHS requirements, according to a DHS representative, is that the state had previously only asked hospitals to reply to 25-30 questions. Now, HHS requires them to respond to more than 100 questions.

This has led to confusion and some hospitals taking longer to complete the questions, a DHS representative said over email.

The Department of Health's weekly ratings of county COVID-19 activity were as follows on Wednesday, July 29.

Note that ratings are based on a combination of total new cases per 100,000 people over the past two weeks and the percent change in new cases between the past seven days and the seven days before that. Parentheses reflect a change in the activity level from the previous week's rating.

  • High: Adams, Barron, Bayfield, Brown, Buffalo, Burnett (up), Calumet, Chippewa, Clark, Columbia, Dane, Dodge, Door, Douglas, Dunn, Eau Claire, Fond du Lac, Forest, Grant, Iron, Jefferson, Juneau, Kenosha, Kewaunee, La Crosse, Lafayette, Langlade (up), Lincoln, Manitowoc, Marathon, Marinette, Marquette, Menominee (up), Milwaukee, Monroe, Oconto, Oneida, Outagamie, Ozaukee, Pepin, Pierce, Polk, Portage, Price, Racine, Rock, Sauk, Sawyer (up), Shawano, Sheboygan, St. Croix, Taylor, Trempealeau, Walworth, Washburn (up), Washington, Waukesha, Waupaca, Waushara, Winnebago and Wood
  • Medium: Ashland (down), Crawford, Green, Green Lake, Iowa (down), Jackson, Richland, Vernon and Vilas
  • Low: Florence (down) and Rusk (down)

Contact Matt Piper at (920) 810-7164 or mpiper@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @matthew_piper.