Positive percentage of new COVID-19 tests rises; more than 2.3K new cases confirmed in Wisconsin

MADISON, Wis. — With over 13,000 people tested for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, the state Department of Health Services said nearly one-fifth of tests came back positive Thursday.

The positive percentage of new tests is now at 18%, an increase of almost five percentage points compared to the previous day. The seven-day average positivity rate also went up slightly to 17%, DHS officials said.

State and county health officials recorded an additional 2,343 cases, a sizable increase from Wednesday’s case count. The seven-day average for new cases per day has grown to 1,940, according to DHS.

Although COVID-19 cases have continued to spike in Madison and Dane County, public health officials say a rising number of cases are not connected to the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.

On Wednesday, DHS officials said all 72 counties in Wisconsin have been classified with high activity levels for disease spread. The state’s lifetime total has reached 108,686* total cases, with roughly 15% of cases still active.

DHS officials reported 76 more hospitalizations Thursday, while five more have died. At least 1,268 coronavirus-related deaths have been confirmed in Wisconsin since the start of the pandemic.

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*News 3 Now uses data from DHS and county dashboards to calculate daily cases and deaths. DHS posts new numbers daily at 2 p.m., and our newsroom continues to update our totals throughout the day with additional cases that individual counties report. By using a combination of state and county data, News 3 Now is dedicated to providing the most comprehensive and up-to-date COVID-19 coverage.