Photo via the Wisconsin Department of Health Services
In an effort to help contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Evers announced on Wednesday that he intends to declare a new State of Emergency order this week, which would extend the state’s mask mandate from this past September into January of 2021. As Wisconsin continues to trend negatively in recent weeks, extending the mandate would prevent any gaps in mask orders, which could ultimately spike COVID-19 cases in Wisconsin.
As it stands right now, Wisconsin is amongst the higher numbers of COVID-19 cases per state in the country, with 331,837 active cases statewide. The Department of Health Services is also reporting that 19% of all active cases are currently occupying intensive care unit beds, leaving just 9% of open ICU beds available statewide. Tuesday saw a record for Coronavirus deaths with 92 statewide, an issue that Governor Evers opened his briefing with on Wednesday.
When Governor Evers first issued the mask mandate on September 22, Wisconsin was averaging nearly 1,800 new COVID-19 cases weekly. Wisconsin is currently seeing a weekly average of around 6,500 positive cases. The number of overall positive cases in the state have tripled since then.
“Since I issued my last public health emergency, we’ve lost more than 1,500 Wisconsinites, bringing our total number of COVID-19 deaths to 2,741” said Evers on Wednesday. “While our current public health emergency expires this Saturday, November 21, it is clear based on where we’re headed, we cannot afford to stop, or have a gap in some of the only mitigation efforts that we still have in place.”
|
|
In addition to extending the mask mandate, Governor Evers called on Republicans in the state legislature to withdraw their current legal opposition to the legislature requiring face coverings in public places.
“We do not get any do-overs here” said Evers. “Enough games. We need you to join the cause, and we need it to start today.”
No exact date was given for the conclusion of the mask mandate in Evers’ address on Wednesday. You can view Governor Evers’ Wednesday address below:
For more updates on the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic in Wisconsin, click here for daily updates.
