MADISON, WI (WTAQ) — Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers will extend the State of Emergency regarding coronavirus, along with the state’s mask mandate, until January of 2021.
The order was scheduled to end Saturday. It calls for all residents to wear a face-covering while in an indoor public building such as a business, restaurant, or office. Wednesday’s announcement comes more than a week after Evers encouraged residents to stay home as much as possible, only going out for essential services like groceries, doctor’s visits, medicine, and to go to school or essential jobs.
The state has been dealing with record-setting metrics around the virus for weeks on end. That includes 92 deaths reported by the Department of Health Services on Tuesday, the highest single-day total since the pandemic began.
Another record was set for new COVID-19 cases Wednesday. DHS announced 7,989 new cases, 212 more than the previous record set last Friday. The positive tests made up 39.7% of the 20,129 total tests completed. Another 52 people died.
Seven-day averages now stand at 6,563 new cases, 48 deaths and 34.7% test positivity.
There have been 331,837 confirmed cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Wisconsin since the onset of the pandemic, along with more than 2 million negative tests and 2,793 deaths. DHS reports 254,365 people have recovered from COVID-19.
COVID-19, the disease associated with the novel Coronavirus, was first reported in Wisconsin in March when a person in Dane County tested positive after recently traveling to China. It’s believed the virus was first found in humans on November 17th, 2019 in Wuhan Province, China.
