It looks like there's been a bit of progress in fighting COVID in Wisconsin since a mask mandate went into place at the end of July. New infections and the rate of positive tests have gone down in each of the last 2 weeks, albeit still at elevated levels.
There also was a slight decline in deaths compared to the week before. But it was still at an average of 7 a day, leading Wisconsin to officially hit the notorious benchmark of 1,000 COVID deaths in recent days.
Moving to the local level, a big reason behind the state's recent declines of new cases is that Milwaukee County has had a notable drop in recent weeks, and was responsible for barely more than 1 in 5 new cases in the state last week.
Dane County also remained at a reduced level of cases after adopting their own mask mandate a month ago, and Waukesha County's spike has started to go down in the 2 weeks the mask mandate has been in place. But unlike Dane County, Waukesha is still at much higher levels than they had a month ago.
And this might explain why Waukesha County isn't seeing their cases fade as much as they are in Milwaukee and Madison. Check out this development at Elmbrook Schools in Brookfield and Elm Grove.
"Six-foot distance and wearing masks are pagan rituals of satanic worshipers," said parent Heidi Anderson. "My kids are Christian they are not subject to wearing masks." https://t.co/gqkK6osl8q
— Mary Spicuzza (@MSpicuzzaMJS) August 12, 2020
And allegedly that is a parent who sends her kids to public school, by the way. Imagine what the ones are like that send their kids to the "Jesus rode a dinosaur" schools.
This is where I'll point out that GOPs are continually living in a different world from the other 2/3 of us when it comes to the idea of masking up.
Should masks be required in public? Among Democrats, 93% say yes, 5% say no. Among Republicans, 43% say yes, 54% say no. Among independents, 71% yes, 29% no. #mulawpoll
— MULawPoll (@MULawPoll) August 11, 2020
On a related note, Washington County is the reddest county in Wisconsin, and continues to see new cases go higher, along with the mid-size counties in northeastern Wisconsin of Winnebago and Outagamie.
I also noted that the Western Wisconsin counties of La Crosse and Eau Claire had increases in the last week, with Eau Claire reaching an all-time high.
Just in time for thousands of UW students to (possibly) return to campus. Ruh roh.
So while things are going in the right direction in terms of the overall COVID situation for the first couple of weeks of August, there are still trouble spots in several parts of the state. And with school starting in the coming weeks and lots of Wisconsinites continuing to pretend things haven't changed, there is definitely a danger of backsliding in the next month. We need to keep masking up and being smart to continue to make these numbers drift down.
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