Governor Tony Evers will be issuing a new Public Health Emergency because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
He will also be issuing a new mask mandate as the current one is set to expire this week.
The new emergency order would extend to mid-January.
“Since I issued my last public health emergency, we’ve lost more than 1,500 Wisconsinites,” said Gov. Evers. “Our current public health emergency expires this Saturday, November 21. It’s clear based on where we’re headed we cannot afford to stop or have a gap in some of the only mitigation efforts we still have in place.”
In Wednesday’s DHS update, Secretary-designee Andrea Palm stressed the dire situation in Wisconsin’s health care system.
She said some regions have no ICU beds available.
And even in areas with open beds, there’s a staffing shortage.
Many hospitals are calling in support from outside Wisconsin, but other states are experiencing surges like Wisconsin and are competing for those resources.
“We have got to stay home. We have got to wear masks. We have got to do the work together to stop the spread so that we are not in a place where can’t get our hands on enough healthcare workers to serve the folks who need hospitalization in the state of Wisconsin,” said Palm.
Wisconsin is reporting 7,989 new COVID-19 cases. That is a new daily record.
Another 52 people have died.
You can see a breakdown of local counties below.
