‘The trend is going in the wrong direction’: Wisconsin’s COVID-19 cases keep soaring — 7/16/20

A roundup of top news and information about Wisconsin’s response to the coronavirus

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Wisconsin’s coronavirus curve continues to bend in an ominous direction. The state Department of Health Services on Thursday reported 900 new cases of COVID-19 — the third-highest daily total during the pandemic. The virus has now killed at least 831 people in the state, including four deaths reported Thursday. 

“The news is mostly bad,” Ryan Westergaard, chief medical officer of the Bureau of Communicable Diseases, said in a media briefing, according to the USA Today Network-Wisconsin. “We are in a bad position. The trend is going in the wrong direction.”

DHS also confirmed six “cases of a rare inflammatory disease that the coronavirus seems to have triggered in some children,” Matt Piper reported for USA Today Network-Wisconsin. 

Top Stories

Danielle Kaeding / WPR

Bayfield County public health officials work with the Wisconsin National Guard to conduct testing at a June 12 event in Red Cliff.

State reports 900 more COVID-19 cases and six Wisconsin children who got rare inflammatory condition that the coronavirus can triggerUSA Today Network-Wisconsin

How to keep your utilities on if you are behind in paymentsMilwaukee Neighborhood News Service 

Middleton coffee shop still flouting mask order, calls police on public health inspectorsWKOW-TV

Several northern counties issue mask advisories after spike in COVID-19 casesWPR

Milwaukee to give out $4 million in federal money to local businesses hurt by COVID-19Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 

Health official: Unregulated Wisconsin Dells attractions could be a ‘recipe for disaster’The Cap Times 

Wisconsin facing a shortage of home health care nursesWTMJ-TV

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Government Updates

Wisconsin Department of Health Services

Gov. Tony Evers’ office

U.S. Centers and Disease Control and Prevention

World Health Organization

Quotable

“Another month of strong job growth and a declining unemployment rate tells us that more Wisconsinites are getting back to work, driving our economic growth. The road to full economic recovery will be long and challenging, but the continued month-over-month progress is encouraging for Wisconsin’s workers and employers.”

Department of Workforce Development Secretary Caleb Frostman, commenting on a report showing that Wisconsin’s unemployment rate dropped to 8.5% in June, a decline of 3.6 percentage points from May

Data to note

Here are the latest visualizations of COVID-19 cases and deaths from our partners at WisContext.

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