Wisconsin is doing it’s best to address the COVID-19, but the bottleneck of testing seems to be delivering inaccurate results. With so few tests being processed, the statistics we are seeing cannot be trusted to show the real situation.
On Friday morning, March 13, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) reported a total of 188 people tested of which 19 tested positively for COVID-19. Yesterday, Monday, March 16, the DHS reported only 47 positive COVID-19 results, and I was relieved. I had expected to see more than 100 as I figured the positives would double every day.
However, I then added the Negative and Positive together (551) subtracted that number from the Friday morning total (551 – 188 = 363) and then divided by three to find the number of tests performed each day which was 121. If we are testing just over one hundred people a day that is woefully inadequate.
If we are seeing nearly 10% of all tests coming back positive, and most tests are still in the queue, we are missing a lot of data.
Wisconsin is not alone. Nationwide the United States has only tested about 25,000 and testing from over the weekend (March 13-16) is lagging (mostly not available from the CDC).
We need more testing! NOW!
The only way to monitor the situation is to get information. Here in rural Grant County, WI, there is only one hospital with access to the test and there are not enough tests to go around. The slow reaction to this pandemic is now resulting in our simply guessing what the situation is. Guessing is not good enough.
We, all states, and all areas in the states need testing now. Until that happens we should be in complete isolation as Italy, France, Germany, and so many other nations are.
My advice to you: Completely isolate yourself.
There is another statistic that is very telling. 80% of the positive tests are from people 40 years old and older. What this likely does not mean is that younger people are not getting the virus, but that when they do, they are not showing symptoms and are able to spread it without knowing they have it.
So, if you have kids, do not bring them to Grandma and Grandpas house, or let them have play dates with other kids. Yes, I know this is a tough thing to deal with, but this is how the virus can spread.
Self-Isolate, now!
The best thing we can do, given that test results, are lagging and this virus is spreading, is Self-Isolate. This is the best way you can help slow the spread of the virus down.
See you on the other side.