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Wisconsin DHS adds new features to COVID-19 dashboard.

  • Post Author
    by News director
  • Post Date
    Wed Sep 30 2020
On Sept. 30, 2020, there have been a total of 122, 274 COVID-19 cases in Wisconsin. Photo courtesy of the CDC, public domain.

Author: Jessica Gregory

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) launched new data on their dashboards Wednesday to better inform state residents about the continuous, and rapidly increasing, impact of COVID-19. 

On the DHS website, users now have the ability to view specifics on disease activity and hospital capacities within their selected counties and regions. This metric provides another opportunity to compare locations and case trends over time.  The hospital capacities feature displays the amount of hospital beds, ICU beds, and ventilators are in use.

With case activity in both small and large counties toggling between “high” and “very high”, the DHS compiled a document called Mitigation Strategies for Wisconsin Communities that is available for download. The guide teaches users how to maneuver through the DHS dashboard and interpret the reported numbers. Mitigation strategies are listed for each level, from very high risk to low risk. Local and Tribal communities are encouraged to evaluate and consider the strategies as they are not mandated approaches.

Now that school is back in session for K-12 students, graphs were added that display which youth age groups are being most affected by COVID-19. There is a graph that reports weekly case counts and another for cumulative cases by youth age group. High school students ages 14-17 are reporting the highest number; last week, 14-17 year olds had a total of 544 positive cases.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers says he is pleased that the DHS is providing Wisconsinites with more data as informed communities are better armed to stop the transmission of the virus.

On Tuesday, the DHS tweeted an infographic stating that on just that day alone there were 2,300 new positive cases, an additional 67 individuals hospitalized and 17 deaths. 

Read the Department of Health Services' full press release on the added features here.

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COVID-19 DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH SERVICES JESSICA GREGORY TONY EVERS

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