Stay-at-home seems to work in Wisconsin, says health secretary

The health services secretary for Wisconsin is encouraged by signs that state residents are flattening the COVID-19 curve. 

Andrea Palm spoke during a telephone town hall on Thursday, and said that if stay-at-home orders had not been put in place, the number of COVID cases in Wisconsin might have doubled every three days.

“We are now doubling our number of cases about every 5 days, and so we really do think that there is cause for optimism about the impact that ‘safer at home’ is having on our trajectory,” said Palm.

She predicts that they won’t know for a couple of weeks whether in-person voting in Tuesday’s election caused any sharp rise in infections. 

Palm argues that peaks of the virus probably will happen at a different time in La Crosse than in Milwaukee.  

Days after the spring election in Wisconsin, citizens are still complaining about having been required to vote in person during an epidemic. 

Palm said she was ‘deeply disappointed’ that state leaders did not find a way to delay the election, but she defends how the state worked with local election workers to minimize contact with voters.