La Crosse No. 1 on New York Times’ COVID-19 case list, averaging 100 a day

From No. 3 to No. 1 — that’s where La Crosse now ranks on the New York Times’ list of metro areas where new cases are rising the fastest.

La Crosse has seen an increase in cases by 363 from now to a week ago based on the list. La Crosse was third on that list Monday.

No. 2 on that list, State College, Pennsylvania — home of Penn State — which has seen an increase of 350. Third on the list, Whitewater, at 270.

Green Bay is 10th (155), Oshkosh 11th (126), Platteville 14th (124), Appleton 17th (100) and Madison 18th (99.9).

Of course, Appleton, the only Wisconsin city without a UW school on that list, which is limited to areas with at least 50,000 people and population adjusted.

The La Crosse County Health Department has its updated stats on the virus, which is done every Wednesday.

The county is averaging exactly 100 cases a day the past seven days, and had 112 cases on Tuesday, according to the health department dashboard. There have been 64 hospitalizations. That’s up three from Tuesday.

There are 961 active cases.

On the metrics page, the county’s case rate has moved from orange to red, at 67.9 cases the past week — a stat based on new cases per 100,000 people per day.

Hospitalization rate is 2.36, which is in the green, as is “care capacity.”

There are six more metrics on the community indicators page. Five of them are in the red:

— Cases interviewed within two days is at 60.1%. The goal is 85%.
— Identified contacts traced is at 73.5%. The goal is 90%.
— Contacts reached within 1-2 days is at 64.2%. The goal is 75%.
— Positive test ratio is at 34.4%. The goal is less than 10%.

The goals that have been met are daily testing, which appears to be at 97.64%. The goal is 75%, and testing turnaround time, which is at 92.6%. The goal is 85% within two days.