COVID-19 positive test results surge in Door, Kewaunee counties

Posted Tuesday, August 18, 2020 8:46 pm

Both Door and Kewaunee counties saw notable surges in positive test results for the COVID-19 virus in the past week.

Kewaunee County reported 146 positives cases as of Tuesday afternoon, an increase of 14 from the 132 reported Aug. 11. Door County also saw a jump of 14 positive test results in the same time frame, from 106 to 120.

In Kewaunee County, that means 9.6% of the total number of positive cases since reporting began this spring occurred in the past week, and combined with the 19 new cases reported between Aug. 4 and 11, 22.6% of the positives came to light in the past two weeks.

Meanwhile, Door County's overall number of positives jumped by 11.7% in those seven days.

The 14 new positives in Kewaunee County were from 182 results (168 negative), for a positive test rate of 7.7% for the week. The overall number of tests reported by the county since testing began is 3,415, marking the overall positive test rate at 4.3%, an increase from 4.1% as of Aug. 11. Of those, 3,269 tests have come back negative with 103 results pending.

At Tuesday night's County Board meeting, Public Health Director Cindy Kinnard attributed most of the previous week's spike in positives to a trip taken by a group of young adults. She said 19 of them went on the trip, 16 tested positive afterward, and 11 were from Algoma.

The potentially good news in Kewaunee County is the number of cases considered active dropped from 21 as of Aug. 11 to 11 on Tuesday. Also, the number of cases classified as "recovered" increased in that time from 109 to 133.

Two deaths in the county are attributed to COVID-19 complications, one in April and the most recent July 28.

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Door County also saw about 7.6% of its 183 tests reported in the past week come back positive. Although the peninsula saw a substantial rise in its positive results, its overall percentage of positives since testing began in spring remains relatively low, at 2.3%. That compares to the state's total positive rate of 6%.

Twelve cases in Door County currently are active, up from eight on Aug. 11, while 105 are considered recovered, up 10 in the past seven days. Three residents have died from COVID-19 but none since early May. As of Tuesday, 187 test results are pending.

Two hundred and fifty test results in the past week came back negative, marking the rate of positive tests at 2.7% for that time, slightly greater than the 2% rate of positives since testing began. A total of 4,064 tests have come back negative.

Of those 83 positive cases, 17 are considered active with 63 recovered. As of Tuesday, 277 results are pending.

Contact Christopher Clough at 920-741-7952, 920-562-8900 or cclough@doorcountyadvocate.com.

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: COVID-19 positive test results surge in Door, Kewaunee counties