Wisconsin will not report new coronavirus numbers over the weekend. Here’s why. – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Buy Photo

Members of the Wisconsin National Guard place a test sample in a bag at a COVID-19 testing site located at the United Migrant Opportunity Services (UMOS) building at 2701 S. Chase Ave. in Milwaukee on Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2020. As the state's outbreak balloons to one of the nation's worst, the surge of cases and hospitalizationsin Northeast Wisconsin is unlike anything the region has experienced since the pandemic began. - Mike De Sisti / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Photo: Mike De Sisti / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services has suspended the reporting of new COVID-19 totals until early next week whileits computer system undergoes anupgrade.

The department announced Friday that it is upgrading its Wisconsin Electronic Disease Surveillance System in an effort to improve its response to the coronavirus pandemic. The system is used to collect and monitor data on testing, contact tracing and other metrics.

The reporting outage is expected to last until Tuesday, one day after the system goes live with the new updates, the department said in a news release.

Track COVID-19 in Wisconsin:See the latest numbers and trends

How to interpret COVID-19 data:What experts say about positive cases, deaths and hospitalizations

It said the upgrade is expected to improve tools for contact tracing, automatic data entry and security, the agency said.

For an accurate picture of the pandemic while the system is being tweaked, DHS officials suggested monitoring the seven-day averages on its website, instead of daily positivity rates.

RELATED: America had the world's best pandemic response plan. Why did it fail?

The pause in reportingcomes as coronavirus cases continued to soar across Wisconsin. On Friday, the state posted another record with3,861 new cases. The seven-day average cracked 3,000 for the first time, coming roughly three weeks after eclipsing 2,000.

The department also reported another 21 deaths Friday, totaling 1,574 forthe year. More all-time highs included 1,101 people hospitalized with the virus and 274 in intensive care units.

Contact Elliot Hughes at elliot.hughes@jrn.com or 414-704-8958. Follow him on Twitter@elliothughes12.

Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.

Read or Share this story: https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/2020/10/17/heres-why-wisconsin-wont-report-new-coronavirus-numbers-weekend/3697080001/

More here:

Wisconsin will not report new coronavirus numbers over the weekend. Here's why. - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Related Posts
Tags: