Where does state stand on Evers’ criteria to reopen?
Gov. Tony Evers’ plan to reopen businesses and schools depends on the state meeting several key criteria, including a downward trend in flu-like illnesses, COVID-like illnesses, cases among health care workers and percentage of positive tests.
The so-called Badger Bounce Back plan also requires 95% of hospitals to confirm that they can treat all patients without crisis and to confirm they arranged for testing for all clinical staff with symptoms.
As of Thursday, the state said it is still collecting that information.
In addition, Evers’ plan calls on
Wisconsin labs to increase their coronavirus testing capacity to 85,000 tests a week and on public health officials to expand the number of contact tracers.
While some of the measures appear to be on a downward trend, they may still not meet Evers’ criteria, which calls for the trend to be “statistically significant” — a mathematical term that refers to how likely it is that an apparent trend is real, and not the result of random variation.
Republican lawmakers, who control the Legislature, have opposed the criteria as too strict. They have proposed allowing rural parts of the state to reopen first.
The state Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday in a lawsuit brought by GOP legislators to strike down Evers’ and Department of Health Secretary Andrea Palm’s stay-at-home order, which was extended to May 26. The conservative-leaning court is expected to issue a ruling soon.
As of Friday, the state health department reports 9,590 confirmed coronavirus cases and 384 deaths out of more than 106,000 people tested.
After early signs that the spread of COVID-19 was slowing in Wisconsin, the number of new daily cases began to rise in late April, largely driven by outbreaks at meatpacking plants in Brown County.
The percentage of COVID-19 patients hospitalized has decreased slightly in recent weeks, according to figures from the Wisconsin Hospital Association. But hospitalization information is still missing for about one-fifth of coronavirus cases.
On April 29, Ryan Westergaard, Wisconsin Department of Health Services chief medical officer, predicted the state could begin to open in late May under a best-case scenario.