COVID-19: Facility-Wide Public Health Investigations

• COVID-19: Wisconsin Data
• Summary
• Activity Level by Region and County
• Cases
• County-Level
• Data 101
• Deaths
• Hospital Capabilities
• COVID-19

About our data

We plan to update our data each Wednesday by 2 p.m. The numbers in the figures below include all COVID-19 facility-wide investigations to date. 

A single confirmed case in the following setting initiates a facility-wide public health investigation:

• Long-term care facilities include skilled nursing facilities (nursing homes) and assisted living facilities (community-based residential facilities and residential care apartment complexes).

Two or more confirmed cases in the following settings initiate a facility-wide public health investigation:

• Group housing facilities include correctional facilities, homeless shelters, dormitories, and group homes.
• Health care facilities include hospitals, clinics, dialysis centers, hospice, and in-home care.
• Workplace (non-health care) settings include manufacturing and production facilities, distribution facilities, offices, and other indoor workplaces.
• Educational facilities include schools, colleges, universities, and child day care centers.
• Other settings include adult day care centers, restaurants, event spaces, and religious settings.

A case investigation and contact tracing is conducted with all people reported with COVID-19, regardless of setting.

Facility-wide and outbreak investigations are considered closed when two maximum incubation periods have passed since the last possible exposure to a COVID-19 case in the facility without any new cases. For COVID-19, two maximum incubation periods are 28 days (maximum incubation period is 14 days).

Wisconsin public health investigations as of September 16, 2020

• Long-term care facility total: among the cumulative 725 public health investigations in long-term care facilities, 297 facilities have had single confirmed cases and 528 facilities have had less than 5 confirmed cases. The median number of confirmed cases per investigation for long-term care facilities is 2, the average is 6, and the range is 1 to 106 confirmed cases.
• Skilled nursing facility (nursing homes) total: there have been a total of 263 public health investigations at nursing homes (active and closed investigations) including 104 active investigations. An active public health investigation begins when one or more staff or residents test positive for COVID-19. An investigation is considered closed, and the facility removed from our listing, 28 days after the last positive case was confirmed.

Detecting COVID-19 in a nursing home is an indicator that the nursing home is following proper notification procedures and working with public health experts to test and protect their residents and employees by using appropriate isolation and infection control practices. Proactive testing helps address outbreaks early on while they’re easier to isolate and manage.

Data shown below are subject to change. As individual cases are investigated by public health, there may be corrections to the status and details of cases that result in changes to this information. Also below is a list of nursing homes with active COVID-19 facility-wide public health investigations in Wisconsin by county.