GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) — COVID-19 is worse than it has ever been in Wisconsin, with record-breaking daily cases on both the state and local level.
It’s a far cry from the way things were in March.
“It feels like a lifetime ago,” Sara Lornson is with the City of De Pere’s health department, said Wednesday.
Lornson says cases are rising in part due to fatigue from restrictions and precautions.
“We’re seeing an increase in cases because people are getting together. They’re tired,” Lornson said. “We all are.”
She says the method through which people are becoming infected with COVID-19 has changed since March and April. In the early months of the pandemic, people primarily acquired the virus either through travel or at work. Now, Lornson says, most people are getting infected during gatherings with friends and family.
“That’s where we’re seeing such a huge increase in cases,” she said. “Unless people start to be mindful of that, I think we’re just going to continue to see that growth.”
Governor Tony Evers issued an emergency order of Tuesday urging Wisconsinites not to travel and to stay home as much as possible. The order is effectively toothless, as the Governor’s ‘Safer at Home’ order, which closed most service industry and retail businesses temporarily, restricting them to carry-out service, was struck down by the state Supreme Court.
There were over 500 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Brown County on Wednesday. That’s a good chunk of the just over 7,000 cases confirmed across the state on Wednesday. There have been over 18,000 cases of COVID-19 in Brown County since the start of the pandemic and 97 deaths. The county is listed as having “Critically High” case activity, which is a new categorization the state released on Wednesday, higher than the “Very High” level that the entire state reached this month.
It comes as the holiday season approaches. Thanksgiving–the biggest travel holiday in the United States–is just over two weeks away, and Christmas is only ten weeks out.
“People’s families and friends and community members are dying from COVID-19,” said Brown County Health Department spokesperson Claire Paprocki. “Our goal has always been to slow the spread.”
While officials are encouraging people to stay with their immediate families and not go over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house, it’s likely that many will. For those that do, they also have recommendations.
“There are steps you can take, like quarantining, washing your hands, not sharing the same bathroom, making sure you monitor your symptoms,” Paprocki told reporters. “If you do start to feel sick or start to develop symptoms at any point… isolate yourself from the rest of your family.”
Paprocki suggested those who intend to travel start quarantining now, two months before the day before Thanksgiving, and to get a COVID-19 test–and turn up negative–before traveling for the holidays.
