GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) — The protests against the death of George Floyd may spread the COVID-19 Coronavirus.
Prevea CEO and President Dr. Ashok Rai says that although coronavirus doesn’t spread as well outdoors as it does indoors, protests could make matters worse.
“When people are yelling and shouting, there’s actually been some research on this..the virus spreads more,” Rai told WTAQ’s ‘The Morning News with Matt and Earl’. “So we’re likely going to see some increases.”
Rai says that many protesters have been wearing masks, which will likely mitigate the impact.
“Now the extent of the spread is somewhat limited,” Rai said. “If you watch the videos of the protests, I see more masking in there than I do in the grocery store.”
While it isn’t clear what impact, if any, the protests will have on the state’s numbers, what is clear is that numbers are improving, even after the state reopened from Governor Tony Evers’ ‘Safer at Home’ order.
“Testing continues to be pretty vibrant. The state actually hit a couple records last week on the number of tests done,” said Rai. “The percentage of positives continues to level off or go down.”
Positive percentage rate hit 2.3% this week, the lowest in months.
