DHS official: Wisconsin expected to pass 1,000 deaths from COVID-19 over weekend

A top Department of Health Services official said Friday that Wisconsin will likely surpass 1,000 deaths from COVID-19 this weekend.

“Clearly, over the weekend we’re going to cross the 1,000 mark threshold for deaths,” DHS Deputy Secretary Julie Willems Van Dijk told reporters. “We’ve been having eight, 10, 12 deaths a day, and it will likely happen.”

Willems Van Dijk encouraged people to “double down” on wearing masks and social distancing.

“We’re all sick of it,” Willems Van Dijk said. “But we have to keep doing this.”

DHS reported 989 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Friday, for a total of 58,768. The agency also reported 14,086 more people were tested, for a total of 1,033,716.

There were 12 additional deaths, for a total of 990.

The average percent positive over the last seven days is 5.9 percent. The seven-day average of new results is 832.