Tough New Lockdown Restrictions Come As COVID-19 Hospitalizations Plummet

Last time we had over 700 new cases back in May, there were just 423 COVID-19 patients hospitalized, significantly less than hospital bed capacity

MacIver News Service | July 6, 2020

As counties across Wisconsin seek to impose new restrictions on commerce and individual freedom in response to a recent increase in the number of COVID-19 cases, few seem to recall the original purpose for such draconian measures.

It was all supposedly to “flatten the curve.” Public officials claimed, without shelter-in-place policies, hospitals would be overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients, resulting in untold needless deaths. With almost four months of COVID-19 data in the books, there seems to be little evidence that this fear was ever warranted in Wisconsin.

Hospitals across Wisconsin have a combined 15,000 beds. The number of COVID-19 patients at any given time has never exceeded 425 in Wisconsin. Altogether, since day one, there have been 3,519 total hospitalizations in Wisconsin. Even if they were all hospitalized at the same time, the state would still have a surplus of hospital beds.

In March, hospitals cancelled elective procedures because they thought they were about to be flooded with COVID-19 patients. When that didn’t happen, they began furloughing staff and cutting salaries.

A reliable source at UW Health in Madison told MacIver News that their hospital never had over 20 COVID-19 patients at any one time. It has a capacity just over 400.

According to the Dane County Health Department, the county has seen a grand total of 222 people hospitalized with COVID-19 this year (as of July 4th). Hospitals in Dane County had the situation well under control and decided to resume elective procedures in May.

Then, from June 13 to June 26th, there were 516 new COVID-19 cases in Dane County. Half of the new cases are among individuals between the ages of 18 – 25. That age group is among the least likely to develop a serious case of the virus resulting in hospitalization or death. Subsequently, hospitals in the area did not see a big jump in admissions. Also, no COVID-19 patients in Dane County required “crisis care” during the two-week period. Regardless, the Dane County Health Department sounded the alarm.

Wisconsin hit a new single day record on July 4th with 738 new cases. That same day, it also had the fewest number of COVID-19 patients in the hospital since mid-April with only 235 in-patients statewide.

“We are currently seeing a recent trend of a large number of cases. We now have an average of 44 cases over a 14-day period, putting us in the red category for cases. This is not what we want to see in this important metric. We are closely monitoring all of our metrics and process measures to see what is driving this increase in cases,” according to a health department report.

This time frame was about two weeks after mass protests and riots began in Dane County – the approximate incubation period for COVID-19. Of the individuals diagnosed with the virus during this time, 45 percent reported being at a “gathering or party with people outside of their household.”

In response to the new cases, Dane county shutdown all bars and restaurants going into the holiday weekend. According to MNS’ source in UW Health, there were only 9 COVID-19 patients in the system on July 2nd.

Wisconsin hit a new single day record on July 4th with 738 new cases. That same day, it also had the fewest number of COVID-19 patients in the hospital since mid-April with only 235 in-patients statewide. The previous single day record was 733 new cases on May 29th. Hospitals throughout the state were treating 423 inpatients that day, their busiest day of the public health emergency.