Dimitrijevic unveils measure to provide at-home COVID-19 tests to residents
Mayoral candidate cites need to ‘change behavior’
Milwaukee alderwoman and mayoral candidate Marina Dimitrijevic on Wednesday announced a measure meant to combat the new omicron variant of the coronavirus through at-home testing and expanded vaccination incentives.
“We’ve got to do something to change behavior,” Dimitrijevic told the Journal Sentinel Wednesday. “And the reason I’m really committed to this is I think if we can get out in front of this new wave with these types of tools and make them free and accessible and at home, this is the way we keep schools and businesses open.”
She called school closures triggered by COVID-19 outbreaks “extremely disruptive to the economy” because they also prevent parents without childcare from working.
The announcement comes as the race for mayor heats up now that longtime Mayor Tom Barrett has announced his resignation effective 5 p.m. Wednesday to take a position as ambassador to Luxembourg.
Dimitrijevic is one of eight candidates to have filed papers to run as of mid-day Wednesday.
Also running is Common Council President Cavalier Johnson, who will become acting mayor Wednesday when Barrett leaves office, in addition to Milwaukee County Sheriff Earnell Lucas, former Ald. Bob Donovan and state Rep. Daniel Riemer. Other names in the mix are Michael Sampson, Nick McVey and Sheila Conley-Patterson.
The legislation will be introduced in January to offer free, at-home COVID-19 tests to Milwaukee residents and a $100 incentive for residents who get vaccinated against the virus or receive a booster shot.
The at-home tests would be available at libraries initially and could expand to additional public locations, she said.
Despite the quick spread of the omicron variant, Dimitrijevic said she thought the legislation wouldn’t come too late to be effective. She noted President Joe Biden’s announcement Tuesday of the purchase of a half-billion, at-home rapid COVID-19 tests that Americans will be able to request online.
Dimitrijevic said she wanted Milwaukee to be ready to dispense tests as quickly as possible and seek federal assistance with the effort.
“If we can get this adopted in the next cycle, that’s when people are c oming back after the holidays, which I’m very, very concerned about,” she said.
On Wednesday she did not have an estimate for how much the proposal would cost but anticipated some portion of the funding would come from federal American Rescue Plan Act funds allocated to the city.
She said the cost of the program would be much less than the price of disruptions to childcare and workplaces because of positive cases and the need for hospitalizations, which are driven by unvaccinated people.
The city’s previous vaccine incentive program ran from Sept. 23 until Sept. 28, when all 1,000 of the $100 gift cards had been distributed, according to the Health Department.
Wisconsin has seen its COVID-19 numbers continue to increase, and Milwaukee County and its municipalities reflect the same trend.
As of Friday, the county’s seven-day average of new cases was at 523, a rise from fewer than a dozen new cases at one point in mid-June, according to the county’s COVID-19 dashboard.
On Wednesday, the city was in the “extreme transmission” category based on the rate of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents over seven days and the percentage of tests that come back positive for the virus.
At this point, 60.6% of Milwaukee residents ages 16 years old or older are fully vaccinated, according to the city.
A spokeswoman said the Health Department “supports any creative initiative to increase the vaccination rate in Milwaukee.”
“We have said before that protecting the health and safety of Milwaukee residents requires community support, and vaccination remains an all-handson-deck initiative,” department spokeswoman Emily Tau said in an email.
As for additional measures, such as reinstituting a mask mandate or capacity limits for places where people gather in public, Dimitrijevic said the city needed those tools and more to combat the pandemic.
However, a return to a mask mandate — as opposed to a mask advisory — has been a source of disagreement as Dimitrijevic has pushed Health Commissioner Kirsten Johnson to reinstitute a public health order to trigger the city’s mask ordinance.
Johnson has resisted that call, citing reasons including the lack of an enforcement mechanism for private gatherings and the difficulty of enforcement only in the city when neighboring municipalities do not have the same restrictions.
As for whether she’d put forward legislation that would create a mask mandate that did not depend on the health commissioner’s buy-in, Dimitrijevic noted the transitional stage the city is in as the new acting mayor comes into office.
“I will make my call again to a new acting mayor and the health commissioner and see what they think about the data,” she said.