MILWAUKEE — For the second day in a row, Wisconsin saw a record number of daily confirmed COVID-19 cases in the wake of the holiday season and amid the Omicron surge.
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services'COVID-19 dashboardrecorded 10,288 confirmed cases on Tuesday, beating Monday's pandemic-wide record of 8,232 cases. Tuesday's record raises the 7-day average number of cases to 6,260 - the highest the average has been since late November of 2020.
Tuesday also saw an additional 44 confirmed COVID-19 deaths, raising the confirmed death toll from coronavirus in the state to 10,198. Wednesday's numbers will be added to the DHS' dashboard on Thursday.
The DHS explained in a social media post on Monday that that day's spike in cases is due to data still coming in from the New Years weekend, as well as from the recent surge in cases driven by the Omicron variant. DHS did not elaborate on Tuesday's numbers in their daily tweet.
Today's #COVID19_WI update. And for the second day in a row, we have a record high new confirmed cases – 10,288. Please protect yourself and your community. Help us #StopTheSpread: https://t.co/kcBqlXhW35 pic.twitter.com/p7unChzfWa
— WIDeptHealthServices (@DHSWI) January 5, 2022
On Monday DHS reported the state surpassed 1 million confirmed cases since the pandemic began. More than 10,000 people have died from complications caused by the virus since the virus entered Wisconsin in the spring of 2020.
Meanwhile the Wisconsin Hospital Association reports 1,963 COVID-19 patients are currently in the hospital, including 462 in the ICU.
Health care providers have been warning for weeks that hospitals are full, a capacity that denies critical patients the best treatment.
COVID-19 testing has also skyrocketed, with many people wanting to get checked after traveling and visiting family and loved ones over the holidays. Just on Tuesday the Milwaukee Health Department announced police officers will now be stationed at testing sites after receiving reports of line-cutting and other altercations between residents and with testing site staff.