MADISON - Wisconsin schools will be closed for the rest of the school year and many businesses will stay shuttered until the end of May under action Gov. Tony Evers took Thursday to contain the coronavirus in the state.

The move enraged Republican lawmakers who threatened to fire the leader of the state's health agency from her job overseeing the state's response to the outbreak and signaled they would take Evers to court.

The new order will keep hundreds of thousands of school children out of classrooms for nearly three months — some receiving no virtual instruction at all — and comes as business owners and Republicans call on Evers to roll back restrictions, not extend them.

But state health officials say the restrictions in place have saved lives and resulted in far fewer cases of the deadly virus that can cause serious respiratory illness than the state would have experienced otherwise.

"Things won't get back to normal until there's a vaccine and treatment for this disease," Evers told reporters Thursday, warning not to assume schools will open again in the fall unless cases are few and the number of tests available grows substantially.

"You can’t think of this like flipping a light switch. It’s like turning a dial," he said about when restrictions will be lifted.

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The Republican leader of the state Senate said Evers was forcing areas of the state without many cases of the virus to suffer needlessly. Assembly Republicans said Evers needed to provide specific goals and metrics he would use to remove restrictions.

"Rural counties of our state haven’t seen nearly the number of cases that urban and suburban areas have, yet are bearing the full economic impacts of this crisis," Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said in a statement.

"The power to close down the entire state was never intended to rest solely in the hands of one individual," he said. "The Senate has not been part of this conversation and we are planning to look for legal or legislative relief to truly work with the governor to make these very serious decisions that will have long-term effects on our businesses, our children, and our way of life."

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke called for a clear plan for reopening businesses and schools.

"The governor can’t just keep extending the date, waiting for some new knowledge to appear," they said in a joint statement.

Evers said extending the order gives the administration time to work with businesses to reopen and that there isn't enough testing, contact tracing or protective gear available to safely reopen businesses and other gathering places.

"If we don't do that, first of all we're not going to have workers to go to work and second of all, we're not going to have people in the state of Wisconsin who feel comfortable about spending their money and increasing economic growth in our state," he said.

"I know a lot of folks are concerned about the effects this will have on workers and businesses across the state and believe me no one wants to reopen our economy more than I do," the Democratic governor said.

This fundamental disagreement between key Republican lawmakers and the Evers administration will likely trigger another partisan fight over how the state should respond to the virus outbreak, which has infected more than 3,800 people since March 2 and resulted in 197 deaths as of Thursday.

It's also resulted in more than 380,000 people losing work — many of whom haven't yet received aid.

Guidance from Trump administration

The debate also comes as President Donald Trump puts pressure on governors to make plans to allow businesses to resume their work within weeks as unemployment skyrockets and the nation's economy is in free fall.

But according to guidelines Trump gave to governors Thursday, Wisconsin isn't ready to consider lifting restrictions.

Trump released an 18-page document to governors with guidelines for reopening their economies in phases.

In it, Trump said states should not seek to reopen businesses and schools until the state sees at least 14 days of a downward trend in new cases of the virus and has robust testing in place.

Wisconsin hasn't yet met either benchmark.

Department of Health Services officials said Thursday that maintaining restrictions is the state's only intervention without treatments or vaccines available.

“Before we lift Safer at Home, the steps of testing and more robust public health measures must be in place," DHS Secretary Andrea Palm said in a statement. “These steps will help us reduce the risk of a second wave of the virus. If we open up too soon, we risk overwhelming our hospitals and requiring more drastic physical distancing measures again.”

Palm, who was appointed in January 2019 and has never been confirmed by the Republican-controlled state Senate, is now in danger of losing her job in the middle of a pandemic to which she is leading the state's response.

"Now, when the economy is on its knees, rather than being flexible on ways to reopen the economy with little-to-no risk, Sec.-designee Palm has once again acted far beyond her authority," Sen. David Craig, R-Big Bend, said in a statement. "She must not be allowed to continually trample on the constitution or the state’s economy."

Craig and Sens. Steve Nass of Whitewater and Duey Stroebel of Town of Cedarburg said separately Palm should be removed from her position.

The GOP controls the state Senate 19-14. Whether other Republicans would go along with the three conservative senators remains unclear but the act would not be unprecedented.

Last year, the Senate fired Evers' agriculture secretary over a dispute involving mental health funding for farmers.

Before that vote, a cabinet secretary had not been fired by the Senate in at least decades and possibly ever.

Golf courses open, schools stay closed

The new order modifies current restrictions beginning April 24 that will last until May 26, the day after Memorial Day.

Under the new rules, golf courses may open and businesses considered not to be essential may conduct minimum operations like deliveries, mailings and pickup of materials. Libraries may provide curbside pickup of books and other materials.

Evers issued a public health emergency in Wisconsin over the virus outbreak on March 12. The following week schools, bars and restaurants were closed. Scores of businesses shut down the week after that when the governor issued an order to stay at home.

While the order extends the closure of school buildings, it does not end the school year.

And several school districts said Thursday that they would continue providing academic content, providing meals, interacting with parents and students, and developing new systems for grading and the awarding of course credits.

"This was not unexpected. We've been planning for it," said Phil Ertl, superintendent of the Wauwatosa School District in suburban Milwaukee County.

"It’s kind of heartbreaking but not unexpected."

And heartbreaking it was for many parents and teachers.

Jessica Salas, who has a kindergartner and first-grader at Milwaukee's Spanish Immersion school, cried at the news.

"I just love my kids' teachers," she said. "I had a feeling it was coming, but it’s still really sad."

The school closures have resulted in school districts and private schools approaching virtual instruction differently — or not at all.

When asked what minimum standard of virtual instruction schools should meet during the rest of the school year, Evers said Thursday his administration was still trying to learn what schools are doing.

Wisconsin joins Midwest plan to 'reopen'

Republican lawmakers who control the Legislature haven't yet said whether they would extend the public health emergency that expires May 12 and some have called for businesses to reopen by April 24.

Some GOP lawmakers say because the state's health care system has not been overwhelmed with cases, state health officials are using faulty decision making to keep restrictions in place.

But Department of Health Services officials and public health experts say hospitals aren't overwhelmed because the restrictions are in place, limiting the spread of the virus, and that Wisconsin residents would still be at risk if daily life resumed normally.

Palm said this week the state is making progress in containing the spread of the virus but that state health officials are still preparing for a potential surge in cases.

Evers has created two care facilities in State Fair Park in West Allis and at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison in case a substantial number of hospital beds are needed.

Ryan Nilsestuen, chief legal counsel for Evers, said Thursday the public health emergency is not required to be in place for the order to stay at home to continue to have a legal effect.

He and the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau said Palm signs the orders imposing restrictions and may issue new ones regardless of whether the health emergency is in place.

The move to extend the order comes as Evers entered into an agreement with governors of six Midwest states to coordinate their plans to reopen large swaths of their economies.

Evers and governors in Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky are crafting a plan to lift restrictions together that relies on meeting the following goals, according to statements from Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer:

Sustained control of the rate of new infections and hospitalizations.

Enhanced ability to test and trace.

Sufficient health care capacity to handle resurgence.

Best practices for social distancing in the workplace.

Sen. Dan Feyen, R-Fond du Lac, wrote Evers a letter Thursday asking the governor to create a state task force to help guide this decision.

"Our constituents are scared, and rightfully so, for their families, their livelihoods, and their communities," Feyen wrote. "The longer we leave this economic moratorium in place, the smaller the number of businesses that will be able to emerge and operate on the other side."

Patrick Marley and Annysa Johnson of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel contributed to this report.

Contact Molly Beck at molly.beck@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter at @MollyBeck.