COVID-19 Roundup for 4/17/2020

The increase of active COVID-19 cases continues in Wisconsin, with a total of 4,045 confirmed cases and 42,635 negative tests.  205 deaths have been reported, and 1153 hospitalizations, which is 29% of the number of people tested. 

Locally Chippewa County reports 20 confirmed cases, Dunn County continues to report 9, and Eau Claire County reports 22. The number of cases in the Chippewa Valley continues to stabilize, demonstrating how effective the social distancing orders are when the local outbreaks were initially small. 

Republican legislators are beginning to chafe at the extended Safer at Home restrictions announced yesterday by Governor Evers and Secretary-Designate Palm. There have been complaints from some of the Republicans that the state must be re-opened before the current date of May 26. There have been calls to not confirm Palm and to remove her from office because of the social-distancing orders.

Some citizens are also planning a protest at the state capitol for the 24th, and have created a Facebook closed group and event for the protest. There will be stories on these events over the weekend.

Dunn County Health Administrator K.T. Gallagher has announced that five of the 9 confirmed cases in Dunn County have become symptom-free and release from quarantine. She will be doing the weekly live update at 4:15 today, and we will provide that later in the day as a new story.