The updated Wisconsin coronavirus cases total 66,830 with 1,039 deaths. Here’s what you need to know about the WI cases and the spread of COVID-19 in the state.
As the number of novel coronavirus cases increases across the U. S. and around the world, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Wisconsin has reached 66,830 with 1,052 deaths in the state. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services reported 634 new coronavirus cases Tuesday with 13 additional deaths. Wisconsin will also be taken off of Chicago’s COVID-19 travel quarantine list, Chicago health officials announced Tuesday. The state was added last month due to the rising number of cases in the state. In order to be taken off the list, the state needed to continue to stay below a threshold of 15 daily cases per 100,000 residents over a seven-day period. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett says the city is installing more than a dozen drop boxes to make it easier for voters to drop off their absentee ballots before Election Day to combat a “full-scale attack on voting by mail.” Barrett spoke Tuesday (August 18) to around 90 Democratic activists, officeholders and others in conjunction with the second day of the Democratic National Convention. He described drop boxes as one way to fight back in battleground Wisconsin against President Donald Trump’s opposition to mail-in voting. Other cities across the state are taking similar steps, anticipating a massive surge in absentee voting this fall. The body that governs Wisconsin high school sports has approved a major overhaul to season structures heading into the new school year as the coronavirus pandemic spreads. The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association’s board unanimously approved a host of changes at the beginning of August, including freezing officials’ classifications, lifting sanctions for leaving a conference, allowing athletes to play for both their school and club teams, eliminating the minimum number of games needed to qualify for state tournament play and allowing a fifth quarter in football games and extra innings in baseball and softball games so reserve players get a chance to play. A new Marquette University Law School polls shows a wide majority of Wisconsin residents support requiring masks to be worn in all public places as concern about the coronavirus rises. The poll released Tuesday was conducted just days after Gov. Tony Evers issued a statewide mask mandate, which took effect Aug.1. Overall,69% of respondents agreed that masks should be required in all public places. Only 43% of Republicans supported a mask mandate, compared to 93% of Democrats. Concern about the virus is at its highest level since it was first asked about in March. Republican legislative leaders who oppose the requirement successfully sued to kill a “safer at home” order.
