Wisconsin DHS Media Briefing 4/13/2020

In today's media briefing Governor Evers led off the meeting, remarking about how different this Easter has been from all Easters past. He remarked on the fact that the Safer at Home program is now working at flattening the infection curve in the state. He thanked the citizens of the state for following the program and stopping the increase of infections. 

"Once the danger of COVID-19 has passed this will change and we will be able to be together safely again"

Andrea Palm spoke about the collection of data and models as a preparation for the next phase, when we can start to move forward. The contact tracing capabilities of local health departments have been greatly expanded. 

"We will continue to focus on increasing testing moving forward" For those with symptoms we have opened two sefl-isolation sites" 

Personal protective equipment continues to come in from the donation and buyback programs. 

She spoke about the volunteer registry which was launched last week.

As of today, there have been 36769 negative tests,  Green Lake County is reporting a confirmed case for the first time.  There has been a decrease in the exponential curve. Total deaths have now reached 154 in the state. The total number of confirmed infections in the state is now 3428.

Locally there are still 9 confirmed cases in Dunn County, 21 in Eau Claire County, and 20 in Chippewa County. There have been no deaths in the three-county area. 

The Governor was asked about the draft of the COVID-19 bill being introduced in the Senate tomorrow. He responded that he is hopeful that there are things in the package to agree with and other than that there is an expectation on the part of agricultural and small business workers in the state that this will not be a one-time package but long-term support of these businesses. 

The issue of voter disenfranchisement in the election last week was raised. He disagreed with the court decision stopping the delay of the election and that he does not know if voters were disenfranchised but he is sure that many voters decided not to vote rather than risk their health. "At the end of the day, this will be resolved in court". 

The question was broached of whether Wisconsin has met its peak. This is not clear at this time since we are still seeing infections that occurred two weeks ago, so we will not know if we are on the downside for a while. The question is what do we do after we hit the peak and what do we do to stop a resurgence of infection. 

The Governor was asked if Wisconsin would extend first-responder status to grocery store workers as some other states have done. Governor Evers responded that this is under consideration but no decision has been made.