Health officials report lowest number of new daily COVID-19 cases in months

Health officials on Monday reported the fewest number of new daily COVID-19 cases since the end of August. They also stopped reporting one of their ways of measuring the COVID-19 test positivity rate, saying it’s becomes less useful as more people have received tests.

The Department of Health Services reported 543 new COVID-19 cases, for a total of 550,369. It’s the smallest number of daily new cases since Aug. 31, when 266 cases were reported. DHS did not report new cases for a few days in mid-October as it updated its disease surveillance system.

An additional death reported Monday brought the state’s death toll to 6,055.

An additional 3,718 people were tested, for a total of 3,088,466.

DHS considers 13,939 cases active.

The seven-day average for daily new cases is 1,029, the same as Sunday and down five from last week.

The seven-day average for daily new deaths is 23, the same as Sunday and down five from last week.

As of Sunday, the seven-day positivity rate by test was 4.2 percent, down 0.1 percentage point from Saturday and 1 percentage point from last week.

DHS is no longer reporting the positivity rate by person. Spokeswoman Jennifer Miller said the measure has become a “less useful metric” than the positivity rate by test.

“This is because many Wisconsinites have been tested multiple times for COVID-19,” Miller said in an email. “In percent positive by person calculations, people are only counted once – either as a positive or negative case. Over time, the proportion of people with positive test results has increased, causing the seven-day percent positive by person to increase as well.”

The rate by person was 17.8 percent as of Saturday, the last day DHS reported the data.

No patients were reported at the surge facility on Monday.

Per the Wisconsin Hospital Association, there were 572 COVID-19 patients in Wisconsin hospitals, an increase of two from Sunday and down 114 from a week ago.

There were 134 COVID-19 patients in intensive care units, down 10 from Sunday and 12 from a week ago.