WI Passes MN in Covid Deaths

For most of the pandemic, Wisconsin has been reporting a higher number of Covid infections and a lower number of virus related deaths than Minnesota. The number of tests per 100K people is about the same, so it was unusual that with more cases, why did Wisconsin have fewer deaths? With these two States being right next to each other, the death rate should be about the same. That was up until this past week. Wisconsin now reports a larger number of deaths. 

Here are the numbers from Jan. 23, 2021:

• Minnesota: 454K Cases    6,131 Deaths    Positive Test Rate 4.7%    Death Rate 1.35%
• Wisconsin: 580K Cases    6,187 Deaths    Positive Test Rate 7.0%    Death Rate 1.07%

You could conclude that you are more likely to get Covid in Wisconsin, but less likely to die from it. Of course there is always more to the stats than that. Each state has different reporting and testing procedures and these numbers don't show which age groups are represented. You would need to drill down further to find a correlation. The good news is that the number of infections in both Minnesota and Wisconsin are trending down compared to the spike in November. Its going to be a while before enough people get vaccinated to see the number of new cases drop to safe levels. Vaccine is in short supply and is hard to get right now. Anyone under 60 years of age, who isn't a teacher, government official, or a healthcare worker, may have to wait until June or July, at the earliest, to get their shot.