Gov. Evers Delivers Update On Statewide Public Health Emergency

ACROSS WISCONSIN—Gov. Tony Evers delivered the Democratic Radio Address on the need for statewide mitigation efforts to stop the spread of the coronavirus and issuing a new public health emergency to extend into January 2021. He is also mandating face coverings.

Audio file of radio address.

"Nearly two months ago, we issued our current public health emergency on September 22nd. Back then, our 7-day average of daily new positive cases was around 1,800," he said. "Unfortunately, things have worsened quickly since then."

He said the state's current 7-day average is 6,400 new positive cases per day. And there are 324,000 positive cases in Wisconsin. So far, 2,741 people have died from the virus.

"We cannot afford to stop or have a gap in some of our only mitigation efforts we still have in place," he said.

That's why he plans to declare a new state of emergency this week and extending the public health emergency until January 2021 and reissuing Emergency Order #1 requiring face coverings in public places.

"Call it what you want—flattening the curve, stopping the spread, staying safer at home… I’m going to call it what it is—saving lives," he concluded.