2 new positive coronavirus cases diagnosed in Wisconsin The Department of Health Services reports two new patients have tested positive for the coronavirus in Wisconsin. Share Shares Copy Link Copy

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Today, I have declared a public health emergency to address the outbreak of covert 19 in the state of Wisconsin. This declaration allows us to access state resource. Is the deal with this pandemic head on care for those who need help and also limit the spread of the virus? I want to assure everyone that those affected are receiving the best possible care and that all steps are being taken to stop the spread of this flavors. Wisconsin Through leadership and expertise set, the department Health Service's has been preparing for the potential of a pandemic because of their diligence. Combined with experience and hard work of our local and tribal help, there's another partners across the state. The risk to the majority of Wisconsinites remains low. That said, we can all do our parts that help prevent the spread of the illness. To others, it's always good to be prepared for emergency situations, whether they be due to disease outbreaks or extreme weather. So with that in mind, I encourage Wisconsin residents pair no of the arrangements of that are important to you if you miss work school or get your information from trusted sources like the department of Health Service's and your local travel health office. So thank you for your patient situation and floor unfolds. Doing that. We are endit dressing this issues like the CDC local and we've been doing We can Situation Surveillance 19 and you will know that when new information is available for your now they're a couple things I would like to mention that have really been on my mind as we worked diligently to mean to manage things. Health Emergency one is food security. We have tens of thousands of folks in Wisconsin, including kids and older adults who rely on schools and nonprofits in order to get their meals. Ensuring that those folks are taking care of is a top priority. I'm also depicted individuals and other vulnerable in individuals in our communities. Our team will continue to work with our local partners around the state to ensure that we're able to support those folks who are. You need our help. We've also got some important elections coming up, folks. The good news is that absentee voting in Wisconsin is really easy. I'm encouraging everybody who can vote early to ensure that your vote is counted and your voice is heard to take advantage of that. Finally, I want to state that Wisconsin has been has one of the most dedicated public health work forces in the country, and they are doing excellent work addressing this virus so that I'd like to introduce secretary designee of the Wisconsin service is Andrea Poem Injury Rivers. I appreciate the governor's quick response in declaring a public health emergency to help the state free up. The resource is we need to contain cove it here in Wisconsin. While we hoped this day would not arrive, the people of Wisconsin need to know that the Department of Health Service is our local and tribal health offices. Healthcare providers, Health Emergency Medical Service is and other of are important partners have been preparing for months to be ready for the time if Cove in 19 Pandemic reached Wisconsin, we're ready to meet this challenge, and efforts will continue until there is no more cove it 19 in our state. As of today, there are five confirmed cases of covert 19 in Wisconsin and one confirmed case that has recovered. They're in Dane County Fondle Act, County Pierce and Walker shot counties. All of these cases were exposed to Cove in 19 while traveling. Five cases are in isolation at home being monitored by local health officials, while one person is currently hospitalized. We are working with our local public health departments in the areas to do contact tracing and notify anyone who might be at medium risk and needs to go into home isolation. Also working to bring home 37 Wisconsin residents from the Princess Cruise in California who will be going also into self quarantine in their homes. These additional cases and monitoring needs will put a large strain on our local public health resource is and with grateful to Governor Evers and his leadership to make sure that we have the resource is that we need for this work to get done at the local level to continue to help protect all Wisconsinites. Our goal is to contain cove in 19 and avoid it toe other areas, which is why today we will issuing new guidance to protect Wisconsinites from further spread, including recommendations on travel events, mass gatherings on shortly, we will also be providing some guidance for for the elderly who are residing in long term care, and we understand that these signature are going to disrupt people's lives but are making these recommendations to protect the lives of the most vulnerable members of our families, our communities and our state. Our recommendations for events include canceling events with over 250 people. If you're event has less than 250 people were currently finalizing guidance on how to think through a decision, your event. Additionally, we recommend against in our state. Our recommendations for events include canceling events with over 250 people if your event has less than 250 people were currently finalizing guidance on how to think through a decision about whether or not to cancel your event. Additionally, we recommend against traveling to areas in the United States with sustained community transmission. If you do travel to places with with sustained community trans transmission, we recommend you isolate in your home for 14 days. We will also recommend additional steps for long term care facilities, including nursing homes and assisted living facilities, to protect those residents. As this is a rapidly evolving pandemic, our guidance will change, so please stay tuned and we will make sure that you know of new guidance as it is available. With that said, I want to reiterate the best things you can do to protect yourself, your family and your community. Those efforts include the things we have been talking about all along. Frequent and thorough handwashing. Please avoid touching your face. Cover your coughs and your sneezes. Stay home if you are unwell, refrained from shaking hands and enact other kinds of social distancing activities that keep you out of close contact. As with any outbreak or natural disaster, it's always good to plan ahead, as the governor suggested. If you haven't already done so, we encourage you to put together to a two week supply of food. Think about your medicines, your prescription drugs, your pets, um, and other plans you would normally think about putting in place for a natural disaster or other preparedness activities that you normally d'oh. This advice is not intended to encourage the hoarding of supplies, but to keep you from having to go to a public place in the event that you become ill and need to isolate at home for two weeks. We want to make it clear also, and this is really important that ethnic background has no influence on the risk of cove in 19 Onley travel history or direct close contact with someone carrying the virus puts you at risk. I encourage you to visit Wisconsin are Wisconsin D. H s website at DEA just at Wisconsin dot gov for the latest information on the vibe resource is for employers, care programs and colleges and universities. Thank you. And now I'd like to turn it to General Brigadier Matthews. Good morning. I'm Brigadier General Joanie Matthews, the deputy agin general for the Wisconsin Army National Guard. I'm here to provide a short update on the National Guard's role in supporting the Wisconsin Department of Health Service's and our state government. Our National Guard always stands ready to assist our authorities in times of need. And yesterday the Wisconsin National Guard received a request for assistance from D. H s toe assist in transporting 37 Wisconsin citizens who are aboard the Grand Princess Cruise cruise ship back to their homes for self isolation. We're mobilizing up to 30 soldiers and airmen to state active duty to serve his drivers and accomplish this mission. The flight carrying these citizens returning from the crews will land at a location still to be determined where they will be greeted by D. H s personnel and then drivers. Some of the Wisconsin National Guard will transport them through their homes and state vehicles. Our Wisconsin National Guard personnel provide a ready source of manpower to assess th S and other state. Resource is in accomplishing this mission, which frees up their personnel to remain focused on their core missions supporting state and civil authorities in this manner is one of our core missions in the National Guard. This is not a security mission, and our soldiers and airmen will not be armed. They're merely providing the manpower and drivers necessary to assist th s and getting these citizens home safely and efficiently. The soldiers and airmen driving our citizens home will be following CDC and D. H s protocols toe limit the risks to our own troops and out of an abundance of caution. Troops involved with this mission will self monitor for 14 days following completion of this mission. Even though the individuals were transporting have not tested positive for covert 19 and are asymptomatic, the worst Johnson National Guard stands ready to assist the state in whatever way we can with additional missions if requested. And we're fully committed to supporting the state and VHS as we all work together to protect public health and safety. Thank you. We followed by Secretary Palm for questions. Merci. Uh, it's an important to think distinction. I think one of the things that we you will see in our guidance is around. Essential service is And what, um how how we think about mass gatherings, proximity numbers of people and the ways that schools can remain open and and will remain open using tools and tactics so that they can continue to the essential functions that they need to do, which is to teach our kids but also employ some tactics at him to improve, uh, the social distancing kinds of things that we talked about so that they are able to continue their missions. So I right, these are, um these are potentially disruptive things for people's lives. We recognize that, and we certainly appreciate the partnership of the people of this state. I think the important thing to recognize about this declaration and about the foundation it lays for the guidance is that we are releasing today is that, um we are at it. We're at We're at a moment, right? What we've seen around the globe, what we've seen here in the United States is that a couple of cases can quickly become many cases. And so we have an inflection point now to lean in to do some of these things in an aggressive way in an attempt to reduce the spread of covert 19. That is really our focus right now. And so the thing importance of of adhering to these recommendations of being in touch with your local public health and your partners on the ground in making thoughtful decisions about how you can help contribute to slowing the spread of this disease are critical things for all of us to do together. But we recognize that is not without some some cost individual lives. And there, every day, daily activities, three itself, please. Who's okay? First of all, we feel in their Wisconsinites way, don't believe would be put in the position of having to be quarantined in the military way, have the opportunity to bring them home. And in addition, it's my the ones we're bringing home. They will either have been tested. Our will be tested immediately after being here. And so But have you know they've been gone for a long time? It's time to bring him home. Uh, thank you for that question. I think you will see in our guidance that we we peg and linked to a seedy see a new resource on the CDC website, which is tracking community sustained community transition. And that is based on the daily information that states are reporting up to the CDC. So that will be a dynamic tool that is changing based on what states are reporting up Thio up to the CDC. And so the map that it links to currently highlights California, Oregon Uh ah and New York, Yes, in New York State, as states that have widespread community transmission. And so we will. We're encouraging people as they think about their travel plans as they are doing. They're planning that not only do they look at the CDC website for the latest on international guidelines, which the CDC continues to maintain an update, but that they look at the's domestic community transition maps and resource is that are linked through our guidance to help them make good decisions about their own travel decisions. Moving forward. Reject the rise of the Wisconsin National Guard military arrest or house arrest. Wise fire soldiers transporting these people to their homes. Basic answer is we have an opportunity to have people drive the drive the vehicles and people that obviously are trained in following directions. And so, no, they're not under house arrest. They're being driven by people that care about them that are part of our national Wisconsin National Guard. Wisconsinites taking Wisconsinites hold because soldiers they have their own families can bring them home or your disperse across. They want to go home, and some of them don't have family. So it's the easiest way to get him home is to get a bunch of people together and drive him home. It Z It's a simple as that bases. So as you know, uh, in recent days, I lose track of time. How, when we when we went live with, uh, testing at the Wisconsin State Lab as well as the Milwaukee Health Department and the capacity of the state lab is, uh is 100 several 100 tests a day and we are using that capacity. We are also in in constant communication with the private labs that are now starting to get up and running and expect others in the future to do that. So, um, we're tracking a need to track capacity closely because it has been an issue we hear from our colleagues around the country about, um, uh, access to tests and needing increased access to test. And so that is something we are monitoring, and we'll certainly a request Additional tests from the federal government as a CZ. Those needs arise. Uh, are what our website has up to date and we moved away from We moved away from posting pending pending tests because there are more tests or more dispersed now. And so what is being reported? Our positive results and negative results. And so we do not have full visibility on all of the pending tests that are currently taking place. We are we we what we need to know what we care most about obviously, are those positive test so that they could be linked with public health to immediately start the response that is necessary toe contain to contain the disease but the number of pending cases becomes less relevant because it isn't. It is not sort of immediately necessary for the public health response. We get a clarification on gathering. Most public schools will be fresh. Just giving an example. I was just in a public school before I came here, and we had planned a full assembly with 400 kits. I met with groups of 30 kids instead. So it's it's it's schools, work in different ways, but obviously going forward, they're gonna work in a way that minimizes large groups of kids being us. We got the state capital. Well, we were. We've already made something. Something's clear. As far as tours of the Capitol, we've we've way stop that are going to be stopping that soon. And, well, we were consulting with Department of Administration on that. We're gonna know that within a few hours, a few days. But they're not just Yeah, we are. We are monitoring that closely because we have leaned in on access to testing. We think it's an important part of knowing or as early as possible about where the disease is in Wisconsin and so that we can move into action. We are at a place where we have been able Thio, that's our throughput has not maxed out our capacity. I do think that we anticipate that being the case fairly soon. But again, we are in close contact and are asking for a refresh of our supplies for test so that we can continue to be aggressive about testing for as long as we need. Thio, they're walking once line. You, uh again as a state, we we are in a place where our throughput is, uh is at is not above the demand for tests. I think that the number of tests that are coming in that are moving through the system um, I think that we think very soon we will be beyond the current capacity that we have for testing. And we are asking and working with the federal government to replenish our supplies so that as a state we have the resource is we need to do the testing. We need to D'oh! No. So we we do want to expand the labs that are doing tests. The these are not simple tests. They're more complicated test. So you need to have the expertise the equipment on and then you need to validate that you could perform the test in a way that is that is consistent and accurate on DSO. It's certainly possible that there are labs. I'm just not necessarily familiar with where if there are, but that if they have the capability, they certainly could come online if they wanted Thio. That's four months out. We're gonna be following a carefully. Obviously, there's multiple options, but we're in constant communication with them. I would not say that we're planning on doing that, but as time goes on will be in a better position to make that judgment. I don't know the ages off the top of my head, but we have been doing our best to protect the privacy of the folks who have tested positive for the virus on that has not been information that we have been providing publicly out of a desire to keep the identities of these folks, uh, private, you know, Captain that So why someone's in there? I mean, I think we can We can certainly consider it. I think we have been leaning on the side of protecting the privacy of these individuals and making sure that the public knows the things that are necessary to protect the public. Health Secretary. How many people a day can you test? The state lab has capacity to do a about 100 in the hundreds of tests a day. Uh, not since our announcement yesterday. The three yesterday You said that the state has passed the test? Yes. Test date. What is the capacity people tested? Difference. My comedy. How many patients? Patients to the doctor. What is that capacity. Like you keep saying, What is that? Uh so the So. I think the distinction you're trying to make in that I will try to be more clear about is when When a position you are when your health care provider does a swab on dhe sends it off to the lab. You obviously need to do the test in a certain amount of time so that it can be an accurate and reliable test that you know, that sample has a shelf life. And so, as we track carefully the, um, the throughput of the system, we need to make sure that test can get it into the into into the test before those before those samples expire. And so that's the balance that we're striking is that you have, like, 100 people that officer show of swabs to test. No way me get them tested before that inspires private Yes, I guess both questions. What is it sample yet that you do swap? Yes, like how much of that is there and does this public health emergency declaration yet? That's like like with actual swap first. Yeah, So that is not a special thing. That is a medical supply. That is so you don't It doesn't. It's not connected to the re agents and the the test kits that are at the lab so that that's not a capacity problem. It is a patient here. If there is a patient, it's like finding with communities. Oh, gee, crisis responses. What? Um, so I mean, it's an excellent point. This this is changing daily rapidly hourly, and, uh, our goal right now is to mitigate. It's why we are leaning in and being aggressive with this with this guidance, I think community spread, um is a thing where we would have to re look at all that guidance and see if there's anything about it that we need to tighten. We need to do more of less of on. We will. We will make those decisions as we see this, Um, this developing, But But our goal right now is for everyone to pitch in and help us prevent spread relative to employees. Yes, we're we're work are Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation and other other agencies that have direct contact with with employers were working them. Certainly we're hoping that employers will be very lenient around issue of sick leave and what that all means, They're working from home. Obviously, that can't happen in all cases. But we are working directly with that and hopefully we'll have. And of course, we're hopeful about the federal government will have some help in this. You like this? This absolutely has. And it already has. And it has the first lady to a CZ. You know, most politicians spend all their time hugging and shaking hands, and those things are going at least for the media future, going to smart going. The large events are absolutely something neither of us will be going to. No, the Secretary palm stress. It's important point. Yes, it is important about all the things we talked about. But at this point time, one thing we can't control is minimizes the spread of us, and it's it's around social distancing. It's around making sure that that we're doing good hygiene things, and that has impacted me directly. And it ain't easy for someone who was in a school today. Wasn't able to hug one kid or give a fist fist bump. The one kid. That's a problem for me. It's working. I'm working at it. I think I've got it down, but it is not. It is something that and I and I want to make this all about the governor. Wisconsin, everybody. I know Wisconsinites. We look, we love the hungry like Kiss we loved. Be friendly. That's what they called it. You know, that's why they call us what they call us about Nice was Wisconsin nice. It's got some nice is gonna have to have a different look to it in the future

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