Wisconsin Breaks 24-Hour Record For New COVID-19 Cases

MILWAUKEE, WI — Wisconsin has set a new single-day record for daily COVID-19 cases, and has pushed its 7-day rolling average to a new record as well on Thursday.

According to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Wisconsin saw 754 new positive tests Thursday, in addition to two new virus-related deaths. Wisconsin's previous highest single-day case count came on July 4 when 738 cases were reported. Before that, the highest case count was recorded on May 29 with 733 cases reported.

State officials also said there were 43 new COVID-19-related hospitalizations, pushing the state's running total to 3,726.

Of the state's 33,908 cumulative positive tests, 79 percent of them have ended in recovery. A total of 19 percent of all positive tests, 6,302, are currently active cases, officials said.

Wisconsin has the second-fastest COVID-19 spread in the U.S., according to an ongoing study that measures how many people become infected by an ill person.

According to TechCrunch, Instagram founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger created Rt.live, a live COVID-19 tracker that measures the spread of the virus using open-source data.
Data posted on Rt.live shows that an average of 1.31 people in Wisconsin become infected by a person who already has COVID-19. Only Montana ranked higher, with an average of 1.34 people.

According to RT.live, if the number is above 1.0, COVID-19 is expected to spread quickly. If it's below 1.0, it means infection rates will slow.

Connecticut ranked as having the slowest COVID-19 spread. Only 0.84 people become infected by an infectious person. That means not every infectious person spread the virus to somebody else. In Wisconsin, by comparison, an infectious person spreads the virus at least one other person, and sometimes two on average.

Maine, New Hampshire, the District of Columbia, Utah, Rhode Island, Maryland and Illinois had numbers below 1.0.