Wisconsin Coronavirus Cases Up To 416; 5 Deaths Reported

MILWAUKEE, WI — A fifth person has died from the new coronavirus and the state has seen more than 400 confirmed cases of the virus , Wisconsin officials said Monday.

During a conference call with the media on Monday afternoon, health officials said the state has seen 416 total confirmed cases of COVID-19, as Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers elaborated on a stay-at-home order that he said will be coming on Tuesday.

During the call, Evers said he's talked with public health leaders from across the state. "We need an all-hand-on-deck approach" to stop the spread of COVID-19 across Wisconsin, he said. "Here is the bottom line. Folks need to start taking this seriously," he said. "Folks, this is important. Time is of the essence."

On Friday, Evers said he did not think a shelter-in-place order would be necessary, saying he felt the state's mass-gathering order would be enough to limit social interaction to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. "We don't have plans to shelter in place," he said Friday afternoon. "We think what we have going right now works."

Republican lawmakers, who control the state legislature, said they were taken aback by Monday's announcement.

“The governor’s executive order came as a surprise to the legislature," Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said in a statement Monday afternoon. "It was a complete reversal from his repeated assurances. It should be noted that legislative leaders have asked on a daily basis whether or not this was the direction the governor was headed, and we were told it was not."

Evers stopped short of calling his new order a "shelter in place" order similar to that instituted in other states. "Shelter in place means I could be walking down the street and I would need to stay right there," he said. "People should stay at home."

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Evers said there would bound to be questions about the new order, which he calls the "safer at home order."

"There will be additional details tomorrow about what this order means to you," Evers said. The governor did reveal some details about preparations for Tuesday's order, saying state health officials are creating different teams to address the state's most urgent health needs: specimen collection, personal protective gear acquisition, isolation, surge capacity management, contact tracing and surveillance.

Wisconsin DHS Secretary-Designee Andrea Palm said Tuesday's stay at home order is about limiting the number of COVID-19 patients at any one point in time.

"Together we must minimize the number of people who get COVID-19 at the same time," she said. "The way we do that is to double down on the effort we are taking together to help slow the spread of COVID-19."

When asked about concerns over people congregating at grocery stores in a rush before Tuesday's ban, officials reaffirmed that grocery stores would continue to stay open moving forward.

"People should go once a week and maintain strict social distancing practices in those situations," Palm said. "Folks need to go to the grocery store, people just need to do it an orderly way."

Cases Nearly Double Over Weekend, Fifth Person Dies From Virus

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases nearly doubled over the weekend in Wisconsin, and the virus claimed its fourth life, health officials said. Evers also issued several new orders related to K-12 schools and districts.

According to the state Department of Health Services, they have confirmed 381 COVID-19 cases in Wisconsin as of Sunday, up from 206 cases reported on Friday afternoon.

On Monday, state officials said a fifth person has died as a result of COVID-19. A fourth person died as a result of COVID-19 over the weekend, officials said. The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's Office confirmed the death on Twitter, stating the victim was a 69-year-old man who had been hospitalized for several days prior to his death.

On Thursday, health officials confirmed that a Fond du Lac man in his 50s and an Ozaukee County man in his 90s both died from the coronavirus, officially called COVID-19. On Friday, officials confirmed that a man in his 60s died from the virus in Milwaukee County.

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