Virus growth in the Chippewa Valley continues unchecked

The COVID-19 situation in the Chippewa Valley is quickly growing out of control. The graph above is the number of daily COVID-19 cases since the state started tracking the pandemic. We added the orange graph over the weekend, which is the number of cases averaged over the past 7 days, which is a cleaner indication of growth because it smooths over the daily spurts. We hope to shortly expand our set of graphs on the COVID-19 page to include data from the individual counties. The number of cases is growing at an alarming rate, making it impossible for local health departments to keep up with contact tracing.

The county public health departments in Chippewa, Dunn, and Eau Claire County have all recently issued public health updates that are very concerning. We have included both the most recent graphic representations and the video updates from the counties here. At this point every county in the state is considered to be at very high activity, which is a recent status.

 The situation in the valley is very fluid. Last night the School District of the Menomonie Area announced that in-person instruction in the high school is being suspended at least until the end of November and that a decision will be made at tonight's school board meeting as to whether sports and outside activities will continue in the district. This is primarily because the number of infections and quarantines in the school staff have made it impossible to continue instruction. The district is leaving the door open to more changes in instruction to cope with the community spread of the virus.

Today, the Dunn County Community Recovery Team issued an unprecedented “urgent call for immediate action” to stem the spread of the virus. “We are calling on every member of the community to engage in behaviors that have been proven to prevent the spread of the virus,” Doug Mell, a spokesperson for the group said, including wearing masks in public spaces, maintaining social distancing and practicing good hygiene habits, as well as avoiding large gatherings and getting tested at the onset of any symptoms of the virus.

In the meantime, the state legislature is still not meeting, and every attempt by the governor to take steps to protect Wisconsin citizens has been met with litigation. Thsi will be a very long winter if citizens continue to ignore the seriousness of the pandemic and the effects it will have on lives for years to come.