Photo credit: Milwaukee County COVID-19 Epidemiology Intel Team
If we've learned anything from this year's novel coronavirus pandemic so far in Wisconsin it's that the virus is unpredictable.
At first, hospitals didn't have enough tests on hand to meet the needs of many communities, so many cases went undocumented. That left an incomplete picture of the spread of the virus from the start.
People stayed home to "flatten the curve" for almost nine weeks, which seemed to be working well. It started to seem like the virus was under control. Then the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that Gov. Evers' "Safer at Home" order was unconstitutional in the middle of May, effectively taking away any power the state had without expressly giving any control to municipalities to put in their own rules and regulations. The state became a patchwork of different rules.
New cases and deaths rose to high points in late May and they are back on the rise again.
Milwaukee County is among the counties in the state that has seen a resurgence since late June.
For the first time, the cases in Milwaukee County's suburbs are starting to grow as fast as cases in the city of Milwaukee.
Compare the above heat map of total cases per 1,000 people from the last week (July 15-21) to the below heat map that spans from early March until now. The scale of the heat map has changed between the maps, but more importantly, you can see more prominent hotspots in Franklin, Glendale, West Milwaukee, South Milwaukee, Cudahy and St. Francis in the last week.
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Photo credit: Milwaukee County COVID-19 Epidemiology Intel Team
In recent weeks, the suburbs have seen a more pronounced increase in new cases. In late June, the suburban municipalities were averaging about 25 new cases per day. In the last week, that has gone up to almost 100 new cases per day.
Photo credit: Milwaukee County COVID-19 Epidemiology Intel Team
Though the chart shows a decrease from July 20-22, that is more reflective of the data still being finalized.
It's important to note that the positive impact of the mask mandate, which has been in place for just one week in Milwaukee, may not show itself in the data for another week.
Darren Rausch, the Public Health Officer with the Greenfield Health Department, explained in a press briefing on Thursday afternoon that it will be challenging to see what impact the mask mandate has on future infections because of all of the variables involved. And even if there is a positive impact, it probably won't be noticeable until next week.
Currently, municipalities within Milwaukee County with a mask mandate are: Milwaukee, Glendale, Shorewood and Whitefish Bay.
