Milwaukee identifies seven COVID-19 cases connected to election

The Milwaukee Health Department has identified seven people that appear to have contracted COVID-19 through election-related activities, Health Commissioner Jeanette Kowalik said Monday.

That included contracting the virus by either working or voting at one of the city’s five in-person voting sites for the April 7 election and primary, she told reporters.

Kowalik said they hope to have more complete information on the new cases that could be connected to the election by the end of the week.

Kowalik said they can do contact tracing through the timing of poll worker shifts and doing “broad notifications” for people that were voting during a certain timeframe.

Department of Health Services Secretary-designee Andrea Palm said Monday that they hadn’t yet seen indications of an impact from the election, although she said there’s a lag time relating to the virus appearing.

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