Peak Wisconsin COVID-19 deaths projected April 26, report says

WISCONSIN (CBS 58) -- The Institute for Health Metrics and evaluation now says Wisconsin will have 25 COVID-19 deaths during it’s projected peak on April 26.

That is twelve days after the projected peak for the rest of the country. The peak resource use for the state is projected one day later, on April 27.

“The delay in Wisconsin's peak is driven organically by the fact that the infection started later in Wisconsin,” UW-Milwaukee Epidemiologist Mustafa Hussein, PhD, said.

Hussein said Wisconsin's proactive social distancing also pushed the date back, which  is an average for the state, and come earlier for densely populated areas.

“You would expect that to happen sometime sooner in more populous areas, say Milwaukee or Madison for example,” Hussein said.

New York’s Central Park has become a hospital. The Army Corps of Engineers is working to transform Chicago’s McCormick Place into a treatment center.

And they toured areas like Milwaukee's Wisconsin center yesterday.

“The Army Corps of Engineers was looking at a few locations at the request of the state," Wisconsin EMA spokesperson Andrew Beckett said. "It’s part of our continual process to revise and update our planning as we respond to COVID-19.”

Projections show Wisconsin is short 207 ICU beds for the virus’s peak.

But Beckett said don’t assume venues like the Wisconsin Center will be converted.

“The visits are part of that planning process, and they are not an indication that we’ll be using any location, or for what person you might be using it,” Beckett said.

Hussein said these projections assume social distancing will continue, so you can do your part by staying at home.