Closures pile up, economy squeezed
Primaries in some states delayed, others soldier on
Shortages in testing supplies and blood donors strained the state’s response to the coronavirus pandemic as the number of confirmed cases in Wisconsin climbed to 90 Tuesday.
That number is likely an undercount. Several people with concerning symptoms, including fever, cough and shortness of breath, told the Journal Sentinel they have been denied testing. Even when swabs are collected, state health officials may not have enough chemicals to analyze them all.
Milwaukee, Dane and Kenosha counties have seen the virus transmitted via “community spread,” meaning people have contracted the virus even though they have not recently traveled or come into contact with anyone who has tested positive. One person, a Dane County resident, has recovered.
The widening pandemic has killed more than 7,500 people worldwide.
Local, state and federal officials have continued their efforts to mitigate both the transmission of the virus and its health and economic effects on residents. But as of Tuesday evening, neither Congress nor the state legislature had not passed a relief bill.
In Wisconsin, efforts to slow the spread ramped up with Gov. Tony Evers mandating that bars and restaurants close to all but carry-out and delivery service as of 5 p.m. Tuesday. He modified his order for school closures in the state, saying they will be shuttered “indefinitely” instead of through April 6, the date he announced earlier. As a result, more than 1 million children from elementary through high school won’t be in class, leaving school districts struggling to educate them and some parents searching for child care.
Students at colleges and universities, which have already extended their spring breaks or moved to online learning, may not return to campus in time for graduation.
Also Tuesday, Evers issued a more severe restriction on community gatherings, reducing an earlier limit of no more than 50 people to no more than 10.
“We know this will disrupt your lives,” said Evers’ health services secretary, Andrea Palm. “Now is the time to make a plan to stay home.”
People can’t get tests
As coronavirus threatens to overwhelm the state’s health system, many Wisconsin residents, including health care workers with symptoms, are struggling to get tested. As a result, there’s no way to know how many people in Wisconsin have contracted the virus.
Experts say testing is the key to understanding the spread of the virus and mandating proper quarantining procedures to contain it.
In other states where COVID-19 is believed to be circulating through community transmission, estimates of how many may actually have the virus are stark: in Ohio, for example, top health officials estimated that more than 100,000 in the state could be sick.
With a shortage in critical testing supplies, Wisconsin’s public lab in Madison was forced to draw a line Sunday night, asking clinicians to restrict testing to “those where the results would make a significant impact on care.”
The state is running low on reagents, the chemicals used to evaluate the samples, and on other supplies it needs to process samples, according to a letter James Schauer, director of the State Laboratory of Hygiene, wrote in a letter to Wisconsin’s top health official.
Health system under stress
Jerome Gottschall has been involved in the business of securing life-saving blood for hospitals for 40 years and has never seen such a serious threat to the supply as that posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This has the potential for being the most serious long-term shortage of blood in American history,” said Gottschall, senior medical director at Versiti Blood Center of Wisconsin.
Gottschall said the center had 50 mobile blood drives canceled in March alone, costing the state about 1,700 units of blood.
Should election be postponed?
The coronavirus outbreak has thrown elections into turmoil around the country.
Georgia, Louisiana and Ohio have delayed their presidential primaries because of the spread of coronavirus. Ohio’s election was to take place Tuesday, but Republican Gov. Mike DeWine postponed it at the last minute, even though a judge had declined to give him permission to do so.
In Wisconsin, former Gov. Tommy Thompson and outgoing Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele separately called for delaying Wisconsin’s April 7 election.
But Evers argued the election should not be postponed.
Evers emphasized the difficulty of delaying the vote, in part because many other offices are on the ballot — including some with terms that begin later that month.
Pushing back the election would be difficult. The Legislature could change the law to postpone the election, but state Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, said Tuesday he doesn’t believe the election should be moved.
Economy in turmoil
Economic forecasts have grown increasingly dire as a result of the pandemic, and President Donald Trump said Monday that the economy “may be” headed for a recession.
On Tueday, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Trump’s lead negotiator with Congress for a rescue package, said it could pour $1 trillion into the U.S. economy.
To help workers and families cope, Mnuchin said one option under consideration is sending checks directly to Americans. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, has proposed cutting $1,000 checks for all American adults.
In Wisconsin, Evers said he would seek emergency legislation to allow people to receive unemployment benefits immediately, instead of having to wait a week before getting them.
Rory Linnane, Maria Perez, Patrick Marley, Mark Johnson, Molly Beck, Sophie Carson, Guy Boulton, Tom Daykin, Craig Gilbert, Devi Shastri, Annysa Johnson and Alison Dirr of the Journal Sentinel staff; Madeline Heim of the Appleton Post-Crescent; Matthew Piper of the Sheboygan Press and USA Today contributed to this report.
Contact Gina Barton at (414) 2242125 or gbarton@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @writerbarton.