Milwaukee bars expand capacity as cases rise
14 more counties labeled with ‘high’ virus activity
As Wisconsin health officials said Wednesday that several counties are seeing a rise in coronavirus activity, a Racine judge threw out the city’s sweeping coronavirus ordinance, saying it violated the state constitution because it interfered with the right to assemble.
The ruling applies only to Racine, but the city’s immediate appeal could lead to a decision in a higher court that would affect other communities.
The decision came the same day Dane County authorities shut down indoor service at bars following a surge of new coronavirus cases.
At risk is University of WisconsinMadison’s plan to welcome students back to campus this fall.
Jeff Pothof, University of Wisconsin Health chief quality and safety officer, said if local health officials don’t try to stop the spread of the virus in Dane County, in-person instruction could be called off.
“If we’re unable to get on top of this current spike and it continues to accelerate, we may be in a position where it won’t make sense to be holding in-person classes,” he said.
Statewide, hospitalizations stayed flat Wednesday, and the rate of positive tests for the virus that causes COVID-19 dropped slightly after trending upward recently.
Out of 12,600 test results reported Wednesday, 540 were positive, or 4.3%. That’s the lowest rate in a week.
Over the past seven days, when new cases have averaged nearly 500, the percentage of positive tests for the coronavirus has been 5.1%. It was 3.6% in the seven days before that, and 2.7% in the seven days before that.
Five percent is still a far cry from late April and early May, when testing was limited and positivity regularly hit
double-digits.
Wednesday’s new cases bring the state’s total to 29,199.
Dane County bars limit service
Dane County’s new order closes indoor service in bars beginning Thursday and limits the number of people who may eat inside restaurants to 25% capacity.
“For the past week, Dane County has seen a sustained, high number of cases. After consultation with our contact tracing team, gatherings and visits to bars and restaurants continue to be implicated in interviews with cases,” Janel Heinrich, director of Public Health Madison & Dane County, said in a statement.
County health officials said since June 13, 614 people tested positive for coronavirus and half of them were between the ages of 18 and 29.
Multiple cases of the virus have been linked to businesses near the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, local health officials said Wednesday.
Dane County’s new limits on its bars come the same day Milwaukee increased capacity to 50%.
Mike Vitucci, who owns five entertainment establishments in Milwaukee, said moving from 25% capacity to 50% “is just business as usual” — but encouraging happy hour or late-night drinkers to keep their distance is trickier.
Racine ordinance tossed out
The City of Racine is left with no plan to combat the pandemic just as cases surge statewide.
Racine County Circuit Judge Jon Fredrickson found that the city’s ordinance not only violated the state constitution but also was so broadly written that ordinary citizens couldn’t understand it.
“It is likely the strictest, and most over-arching COVID-19 order or ordinance in the country,” he wrote. “This court finds that no average person of ordinary intelligence can make sense of its sprawling breadth.”
The city immediately appealed the decision and Racine Mayor Cory Mason dubbed Fredrickson a “right-wing-activist judge.”
“Twenty-five city residents have died from this virus (and) I hope no one else will die because of Judge Fredrickson’s judicial activism,” Mason said in a statement.
It was the latest in a series of decisions by Fredrickson against the city and its public health administrator. The lawsuit was brought by the owner of a CrossFit gym who said the rules threatened his business.
14 additional counties ‘high’
Two more deaths were announced Wednesday, bringing the state total to 786.
There were 237 known COVID-19 patients in Wisconsin hospitals and another 147 inpatients awaiting test results as of Wednesday. Both numbers were down slightly from Tuesday’s level and haven’t risen along with upturns in confirmed cases and test positivity.
Steady levels of hospitalizations and deaths can be partly explained by the increased prevalence of the disease among 20-somethings, who are less likely than older age groups to be hospitalized (3% compared with 12% overall) or die (1% compared with 3% overall).
But 20-somethings accounted for a lower percentage of Wednesday’s new positives than in recent days. Only a third of Wednesday’s new cases (180) were in that age group, down from 42% (251) on Wednesday.
The state health department also updated its weekly activity ratings for Wisconsin and its counties on Wednesday. The overall rating for Wisconsin — based on a combination of total new cases per 100,000 people over the past two weeks and percentage change — remained “high” for a second week.
An additional 14 counties are now showing “high” disease activity.
The most new cases per 100,000 residents were in La Crosse, where there were 260. Next came Milwaukee (190), Lafayette (180), Dane (180) and Brown (160).
County ratings as of Wednesday were as follows (change in activity level from last week in parentheses):
High: Brown, Calumet (up), Clark, Columbia (up), Dane, Douglas (up), Dunn (up), Eau Claire, Forest (up), Grant, Iowa (up), Iron (up), Jefferson, Juneau (up), Kenosha, Kewaunee (up), La Crosse, Lafayette, Manitowoc, Marathon, Menominee (up), Milwaukee, Monroe, Outagamie, Ozaukee (up), Pierce (up), Portage, Racine, Rock, St. Croix (up), Trempealeau, Walworth, Washington (up), Waukesha, Waupaca, Winnebago
Medium: Adams, Barron, Buffalo, Chippewa, Crawford, Dodge, Door (up), Florence, Fond du Lac, Green, Green Lake, Jackson, Langlade, Marinette, Marquette, Oconto, Polk, Sauk, Sawyer (up), Shawano, Sheboygan, Taylor, Vernon, Waushara, Wood
Low: Ashland, Bayfield, Burnett, Lincoln, Oneida (down), Pepin, Price, Richland, Rusk (down), Vilas, Washburn