Racine sees uptick in COVID-19 cases

Racine officials and providers are concerned about an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in the greater Racine area.

As of Tuesday, Racine County reported 763 confirmed COVID-19 cases. That put the county third in the state, behind Brown and Milwaukee counties. Kenosha County was close behind, with 716 total cases.

“Flattening the curve won’t happen without the help of the entire community,” City of Racine Mayor Cory Mason said in a statement. “We need all of our residents to take seriously and follow the advice of doctors and public health officials.”

Kristin McManmon, Ascension All Saints Hospital president, said that they continue to “experience significant COVID-19-related activity.” They’re confident in their preparedness and response, she said.

Data from the City of Racine Public Health Department also shows the pandemic hitting the area’s Latinx and African American communities hard. They accounted for 41 percent and 42 percent of cases respectively in the department’s jurisdiction, which includes the city of Racine and villages of Wind Point and Elmwood Park. There were 502 cases in the jurisdiction.

Department of Health Services Deputy Secretary Julie Willems Van Dijk told reporters Tuesday that the city of Racine made a request to expand testing that will be evaluated.

General Paul Knapp, Wisconsin’s adjutant general, said they have a National Guard specimen collection team at a high school in Burlington.

Darrell Williams, Wisconsin Emergency Management administrator, toured the Racine County Emergency Operations Center Tuesday and met with local officials, according to a city update.

Statewide, there were 193 new cases reported Tuesday, which brought the total number to 10,611. The number of deaths increased by nine, with a total of 418.

DHS also reported that the state has hit five of the six gating benchmarks needed to begin relaxing some social distancing requirements and move forward on reopening the state’s economy.

Gov. Tony Evers tweeted that once all six criteria are met, the state can move out of his safer-at-home order and into phase one of his Badger Bounce Back Plan.

“We continue to make progress to box in this virus,” he said.

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