OFF THE CHARTS

Wisconsin’s COVID-19 Cases Grew So Fast It Had to Create a New Category

“To put these new data in perspective, Wisconsin is now seeing more average cases per day than New York City did at the peak of its surge last spring,” said a state official.

So many counties in Wisconsin have exceeded the highest classification for COVID-19 case surges that the state’s Department of Health Services was forced to create a whole new category. “Far too many of our communities are in a dire situation,” DHS Deputy Secretary Julie Willems Van Dijk has said. “To put these new data in perspective, Wisconsin is now seeing more average cases per day than New York City did at the peak of its surge last spring.” The previous top category, “Very High,” included counties that had exceeded 350 cases per 100,000 residents over a two-week period. As of this week, every single one of the state’s 72 counties had more than doubled that metric. “Because of these critically high levels of disease, public health can no longer adequately contact trace, hospital beds are filled with patients with COVID-19, and too many Wisconsin families are losing loved ones to this virus,” Willems Van Dihk said.