Evers: Science will drive when the state reopens
Gov. Tony Evers said Friday that transitioning away from the his safer-at-home order will likely be gradual. He told reporters that science will drive the process.
“Reopening the state, when that happens, it is unlikely that it’s going to be, ‘OK, today, everybody’s home, tomorrow, everybody’s going back to work,’” he said. “There isn’t a scenario that I can see that would allow that to happen.”
Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, as well as other business groups, asked Evers last week to set April 24 – the day his safer-at-home order is set to end – as a firm date to start reopening the state’s economy.
Sen. Duey Stroebel, R-Cedarburg, on Friday called for “a fresh look to evaluate our policy choices,” given that a national model revised down its predictions of Wisconsin deaths and that the trajectory of cases and deaths is lower than the 22,000 positive cases projected by Evers by April 8.
“Every sickness and death is a tragedy, but so are businesses and livelihoods ruined by shelter-in-place orders,” Stroebel said in a statement. “The same rings true for the pronounced negative impacts on civil liberties and quality of life.”
Department of Health Services Secretary-designee Andrea Palm said that they’re going to have to actively manage the outbreak until they have medical interventions and vaccines.
She said she hasn’t put a specific timeframe on when they’d move back from the safer-at-home order.
They’re following data closely and trying to understand how much they’ve flattened the curve, she said.
“Safer-at-home is the current tool we are using,” she said. “We used a variety of tools before we got to safer-at-home. We assume we’ll use a variety of tools as we manage this in a more active way moving forward.”
Other COVID-19 updates:
- DHS said Sunday there have been 144 deaths from COVID-19 in Wisconsin. There have been 3,341 positive tests for the disease and 35,916 negative tests.
- Legislative Republican leaders said Friday they’re planning to be in session this week to take up COVID-19 relief legislation.
- More than 215,000 FoodShare households will be receiving additional benefits due to a recent federal law aimed at fighting COVID-19, DHS said Friday.
- Palm said a plan to buy 10,000 ventilators as part of a multi-state purchase fell through, but they’re now in talks to buy around 1,500 ventilators.
- Ryan Nilsestuen, Evers’ chief legal counsel, told reporters that they’re taking a “close look” at whether to shift the May 12 special election to fill former Wausau Republican U.S. Rep. Sean Duffy’s seat.
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