Just 4% of new coronavirus tests in Wisconsin are positive as state meets five of six reopening goals – Appleton Post Crescent

For a second straight day, there were fewer than 200 newly confirmed cases of coronavirus in Wisconsin, and Tuesday'supdate included another encouraging number: Fewer than 4% of all tests were positive for the virus.

Following Tuesday's results, Wisconsin had met five of six criteria set by Gov. Tony Evers to begin a phased reopening of the state.

Of more than 4,900 test results announced Tuesday, 193 returned positive, the lowest number of positive tests announced since April 27 and the lowest portion of new tests that were positive 3.9% since the state stopped including repeated tests of the same patients in its daily updateson March 30.

Nine more people had died of COVID-19, however, increasing the state's total to 418.

As of Tuesday morning, 326 patients were hospitalized with COVID-19 in Wisconsin, while 188 inpatients awaited test results, according to the Wisconsin Hospital Association. Of the hospitals' 1,261 ventilators, 325 were in use.

For each category of personal protective equipment tracked by the WHA face shields, goggles, gowns and N95 and paper masksat least 30 hospitals reported that they had less than a week's worth remaining.

Total tests increased again after a brief Mother's Day dip, though the 4,900 new tests werestill far below the reported daily capacity of more than 50 active labs in the state, which verged on 14,000.

A Johns Hopkins University case tracker showed more than 4.2 million cases worldwide by early afternoon, with nearly a third of those coming in the U.S. Deaths in the U.S. accounted for nearly 82,000 of nearly 290,000 globally.

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The state health department's dashboardfor Evers' Badger BounceBack plan showed green lights for downward trajectories in the percent of new tests that have been positive for coronavirus, number of cases with COVID-19 symptoms and cases among health care workers,as well as two measures that reflect hospital readiness.

Still showing as a red light: A statistically significant downward trends in flu-like illnesses. Flu-like illnesseshave trended downward but the number had yet to meet health officials' definition of statistical significance.

Evers announced Monday that retail stores could open their doors to up to five customers at a time, and drive-in theaters could resume operations with some restrictions.

Marquette University poll results released Tuesday showed that a majority of Wisconsin voters 56% were more concerned that the state would be reopened too soon, compared to 40% who worried more that it wouldn't be opened soon enough.

But compared to March,more voters felt Evers' measures were an overreaction 26% in the new poll, compared to 10% in March.

Evers' order has been challenged by Republican legislators in the state Supreme Court.

The state's count of confirmed cases by county stood as follows Tuesday:

Note that the state's totals are frozen once each day, and that some counties may have reported more up-to-date counts.

Contact Matt Piper at (920) 810-7164 or mpiper@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @matthew_piper.

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Just 4% of new coronavirus tests in Wisconsin are positive as state meets five of six reopening goals - Appleton Post Crescent

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