(NBC 26) -- There was an overnight spike in the number of positive COVID-19 cases in Wisconsin on Thursday. According to today's report, nearly eleven percent of the state's COVID-19 tests came back positive compared to Wednesday's results, when seven percent of the tests came back positive. Today NBC26's Eric Crest spoke with Governor Tony Evers about the positive direction we're hoping to see in order to safely reopen all of Wisconsin.
Thursday marked an uptick in the amount of recent positive tests of COVID-19 in Wisconsin. It's something Governor Evers says expected.
"The number of cases are obviously going to go up because we're testing more."
Right now Governor Evers says we have to ramp up testing even more across the state.
"We need as much testing as possible. So that we can use contact tracing to really box in this virus instead of boxing in people."
Looking at the Department of Health Services website the daily positive test results of COVID-19 fluctuate daily. But taking look at the 14-day trend that takes into account how many tests are conducted and how many come back positive, it appears there is a downward trend of overall positive cases when you crunch the numbers.
"When we look at it as a percentage of the total number of tests, that is the criteria we're looking at, there is some evidence that there is a downward trend," says Governor Evers.
The DHS says Wisconsin's rate of doubling infections was 3.4 days in early March before the Safer at Home order was issued. Today they claim that over the past two weeks the rate of doubling is now approximately 12 days though. Which is a sign Governor Evers hopes says we are doing something right.
"Staying at home is safer at home. We've saved lives. We're working day and night to try and make sure that we're continuing to save lives. But also finding ways to slowly reopen the economy. It has to be slow, it has to be thoughtful and it has to be guided by science."
To check out current trends of COVID-19 in Wisconsin check out The Wisconsin Department of Health Services website here.
