Every single one of Wisconsin's 72 counties have reported at least one death because of COVID-19.
The Department of Health Services counted62 new deaths due to the virus Wednesday, including one in Pepin County, in the western part of the state, the county's first since the pandemic began. That raises the death toll in Wisconsin to 2,457. According to COVID-19 data from the New York Times, Wisconsin now has the sixth-highest number of deaths due to the virus in the last seven days, out of all 50 states.
The seven-day average of cases, meanwhile, shows no signs of slowing down. Wisconsin continues to break new records of the average almost every day for the past week, tallying a weekly average of 5,984 on Wednesday. DHS counted 7,048 new coronavirus cases today, the second day the state has tallied more than 7,000 new cases on a given day.
For hospitalizations, Wisconsin recorded 277 Wednesday, which is about 4.7 percent of all residents who tested positive for the virus. That raises the total number of hospitalizations related to the virus to just over 13,500 at the moment.
Your #COVID19_WI update & for the second straight day, positive cases top 7,000. Pepin County reports its first life lost, which means all 72 #Wisconsin counties have reported at least 1 death. Check disease activity where you are & help #StopTheSpread: https://t.co/R46klg8nRD pic.twitter.com/wNm0KKbGmH
— WIDeptHealthServices (@DHSWI) November 11, 2020
There are 64,067 active coronavirus cases in the state. Just over 219,000 people have recovered from the virus, or 76.6 percent of all people who have tested positive, including the active cases right now, DHS numbers show.
The dire trend in more cases and deaths comes a day after Gov. Tony Evers pleaded to Wisconsin residents to stay indoors and follow coronavirus guidelines during a primetime speech Tuesday evening. The governor decided to not require residents to stick with guidelines in the executive order announced Tuesday.