MADISON, WI (WTAQ) – For the first time since Governor Tony Evers issued the Safer at Home order, Wisconsin’s daily COVID-19 count rose by less than 100. There were just 87 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Wisconsin on Monday. But it doesn’t mean we’re in the clear just yet.
“The level we’re at is much, much better than it would’ve been projected at the beginning when we had that exponential growth that was seen in other countries,” says Bureau of Infectious Disease Dr. Ryan Westergaard, “We have a number of acutely ill patients that have COVID-19 – at this moments it’s not straining our hospital capacity.”
Wisconsin has clearly begun to flatten the curve – but a regular daily dose of over 100 new cases means there is still transmission of COVID-19 in local communities.
“If this is the peak – if the peak was yesterday – that will be evidence that we’ve done a really good job,” Westergaard says, “You don’t know what the peak of the curve is until you’re on the other side of it and you’ve seen the first wave of the epidemic come and go.”
But even with the lower growth and potential slowing of cases, the state health officials say that doesn’t mean there isn’t a risk for an even bigger spike.
“We’ve flattened the curve, but we haven’t smashed the curve down to nothing. So there are still people with the infection in the community that we don’t know about. So we need to be very careful and make sure we have all the resources in place, so as time goes on we can keep the curve low,” Westergaard says, “It also unfortunately tells us that there’s a sustained transmission within the community – that means that there’s a large number of people potentially who are infectious.”
He also points out that what we’ve learned from other countries and states running similar testing – is that the the testing infrastructure in place is likely only detecting 10-20% of the true total cases.
But he believes the state’s Safer At Home order is beginning to show it’s impact.
“The cases that we’re seeing right now really reflect people who were infected a week or two ago. So the trend that we see now is going to depend on how we maintain our physical distancing and our infection control practices in our healthcare system,” Westergaard says, “When we relax Safer At Home, we’re really going to need to be able to zero-in and contain those individuals. We’re not at the surge that’s straining our healthcare system capacity, but we’re also not at such a small level that we’re safe from having an expanded epidemic like we’ve seen in many countries.”
Westergaard did express some hope and optimism while looking at the trends though, as he explains the lack of exponential day-over-day growth as a sign of a flattening curve. A consistent growth pattern and even drops – which Wisconsin is now seeing – could mean that a peak could arrive sooner than expected.
