DHS: 19 COVID-19 cases have connection to election

State health officials have identified 19 people who have tested positive for COVID-19 after April 9 that have reported they voted in person or worked the polls on election day.

But several of those individuals have reported other potential exposures, Department of Health Services spokeswoman Jennifer Miller said.

“There is no way to know with certainty if any exposures at the polls that are reported are in fact attributable to COVID-19 illness,” she wrote in a Wednesday email.

She cited the lack of a comparison group of people who were not tested or tested negative.

Major General Paul Knapp, Wisconsin’s adjutant general, told reporters Wednesday that five of the 2,400 National Guard members deployed to polling locations have reported symptoms of COVID-19.

One tested negative. The other four reported their symptoms to primary care doctors, but weren’t given the test, he said.

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