State coronavirus deaths rise to 3
Evers requests supplies from federal stockpile
State health officials expect thousands of Wisconsinites to be affected by the coronavirus, they said Friday. The situation will worsen in the coming weeks, they said, and federal emergency supplies “won’t be enough” as cases surge.
Part of that increase in cases may come at nursing homes, which house residents at greater risk of serious illness in facilities that may be illequipped to prevent the spread of infection. The consequences can be devastating, as illustrated by the dozens of fatalities at Life Care Center in Kirkland, Washington.
Wisconsin’s first outbreak in a senior care facility was confirmed Friday. One of the state’s three verified deaths from coronavirus, a man in his 90s, was a resident of the memory care unit at Village Pointe Commons in Grafton. Since his death earlier this week, three residents and a caregiver at the facility have tested positive for coronavirus, according to the Washington Ozaukee Public Health Department.
The caregiver is isolated at home and has not worked in the facility since
March 14, according to the Health Department, which was awaiting the results of additional tests Friday.
In addition to the Village Pointe Commons resident, two other people in Wisconsin had died of the virus as of Friday evening, a 66-year-old Milwaukee man and a man in his 50s from Fond du Lac County.
“Sadly, these deaths won’t be our only deaths,” Andrea Palm, secretarydesignee for the state Department of Health Services, said in a telephone briefing with reporters Friday.
Wisconsin’s total number of confirmed cases of coronavirus was up to 206 as of Friday afternoon, 95 of them in Milwaukee County.
Officials confirmed Friday that an employee at Messmer St. Mary, a Catholic voucher school with about 425 students in Milwaukee’s Riverwest neighborhood; a Milwaukee bus driver; and a UW-Eau Claire student who had been studying abroad all had tested positive.
The number of people with the virus in Wisconsin is likely higher than the number of positive tests due to the fact that testing supplies remain scarce. The state lab has issued guidance that only people who are hospitalized or health care workers who show symptoms should be tested.
Because most people with COVID-19 have mild symptoms, hospitalized patients represent only “the tip of the iceberg,” said Department of Health Services Chief Medical Officer Ryan Westergaard.
Nearly 3,500 people in the state had tested negative as of Friday.
Brown, Dane, Milwaukee, Kenosha, Columbia and Walworth counties all have shown evidence of 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. Most of the state’s new cases are likely the result of community spread, according to Westergaard.
Globally, more than 263,000 cases and more than 11,000 deaths have been reported. In the U.S., there have been more than 14,600 cases and 210 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University case dashboard.
Gov. Tony Evers has requested 54,709 N95 respirators, 130,326 surgical masks, 24,816 face shields, 20,233 surgical gowns, 104 coveralls and 72,044 gloves from the federal emergency supply stockpile.
But that “won’t be enough to meet the needs of our health care facilities at surge capacity,” Palm said Friday.
Unemployment claims skyrocket
More than 16,200 people filed new unemployment claims in the state Thursday — more than three times the number filed the entire previous week.
The numbers of new claims have steadily increased all week as Evers ordered bars, restaurants, malls and other businesses to close in a socialdistancing effort to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Evers stopped short of issuing a shelter-in-place order, as governors have in Illinois and California. He said he thought Wisconsin could avoid such an order, but urged people to “only leave your home if it is absolutely necessary.”
The losses for the travel industry alone could double the nation’s unemployment rate over the next two months and plunge the country into recession.
Wisconsin won’t be spared. Most everything in the state’s most popular destinations, including Wisconsin Dells, the North Woods and Door County, is closed. Officials there urged potential visitors to stay home.
“We have a fabric that is tourism, manufacturing and agriculture,” said Steve Jenkins, executive director of the Door County Economic Development Corp. “None of those are going to escape major impacts that are going to be occurring over the next few weeks and months.”
Economic slowdown worsens
Unemployment filings were among numerous signals of an economic slowdown in the state as a result of the pandemic.
Milwaukee’s largest pending real estate development, the expansion of the Wisconsin Center, has been put on hold indefinitely.
Along with needing demand from investors interesting in buying the bonds that would finance the project — so the center district can borrow up to $425 million — the project also needs to see a rebound in the travel, restaurant and hotel industries.
That’s because the center district finances its operations with taxes on Milwaukee County hotel rooms, restaurant and bar tabs, and car rentals.
“We’re in such uncharted territory,” Marty Brooks, center district president and chief executive officer, told the Journal Sentinel Friday.
“Whether this is a two-month delay or a six-month delay, it’s way too soon to tell.”
UWM cancels commencement
Evers’ ban on gatherings of more than 10 people has forced the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to cancel its commencement ceremony, set for May 11.
“These decisions are not made lightly,” Chancellor Mark Mone wrote in his announcement, “but with the best interests of our campus communities and our students’ families and loved ones in mind, especially since many people would make travel plans to attend.”
The university also announced it would close its dorms with the exception of students who have no where else to go.
Evers’ mandate already has closed schools and forced restaurants to offer only carryout, among other things. On Friday, the governor ordered all barbers, day spas, nail salons, tanning facilities and tattoo parlors to close as well.
Although the ban doesn’t apply to polling places, a record number of people have requested absentee ballots for the state’s spring election. Those ballots allow people to vote by mail in the April 7 election, which includes the presidential primary and races for state Supreme Court, Milwaukee mayor, Milwaukee County executive and other local offices.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission estimates clerks are short about 600,000 envelopes for those ballots to be returned. A million envelopes are on their way so clerks can overcome the issue, according to the commission.
Congress works on relief plan
At the federal level, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell proposed a plan that would give individual taxpayers up to $1,200 with additional payments of $500 per child.
It quickly drew fire from both ends of the political spectrum.
Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin is among at least 18 Democrats backing a plan that would send much larger payments — checks of up to $4,500 this year — to individual Americans.
Senate Republican Ron Johnson of Wisconsin published an op-ed Friday in the Wall Street Journal titled, “Coronavirus imperative: do no harm.”
Johnson wrote: “Social-distancing strategies are essential” but “social distancing is doing great harm to the economy.”
The senator said “indiscriminately writing checks to individuals” would do little good.
Tom Daykin, Rick Barrett, Sammy Gibson, Craig Gilbert, Patrick Marley, Jeff Rumage, Devi Shastri, Annysa Johnson, Ricardo Torres and Elliot Hughes of the Journal Sentinel staff, Madeline Heim of the Appleton PostCrescent and USA Today contributed to this story.
Contact Gina Barton at (414) 2242125 or gbarton@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @writerbarton.