GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) — The State of Wisconsin’s mask order has been extended into November. Governor Tony Evers made that call Tuesday morning, and it comes at a time when cases continue to increase throughout the entire state of Wisconsin.
Those cases, notably, have been increasing in spite of the mask mandate. Prevea Health CEO Dr. Ashok Rai says it’s not because the masks aren’t working.
“The science that masks help is very solid,” Rai told WTAQ on Tuesday. “But they only help when it covers your nose and your mouth. It doesn’t help when you’re not wearing one. It doesn’t help when it’s at your chin.”
In Appleton, Health Officer Kurt Eggebrecht shared similar views.
“The science follows that wearing a mask really does both protect the individual and those that you interact with,” Eggebrecht said. “Putting the order in place just makes sure everybody knows this is something – we’re going to go back to not wearing masks – because we know it’s a proven strategy to reduce the spread.”
Rai says it can be boiled down to one thing: people aren’t listening to the mask rules.
“You’re seeing pictures of weddings over the weekend, gatherings for watching football games, baseball games, and basketball games, and people aren’t wearing masks,” said Rai. “It’s not working because nobody’s wearing their masks.”
Meanwhile, area hospitals are feeling the brunt of the pandemic. Hospitalizations across the state have seen a 30% uptick in COVID-19 patients, and Dr. Rai says local hospitals are in a dire situation.
“You have cancer surgeries that need to happen tomorrow, you have other things that need to happen,” Rai explained. “And then you’re layering on COVID on top of it. It creates a crisis type situation.”
With that widespread transmission seen across the state and increased hospitalizations, doubling down on the effort is something Eggebrecht says just makes sense.
“Seeing our highest transmission rates. If you look at the burden, we’re very close to the surrounding counties around us in terms of major burden risk per 100,000 people. We’re close to that 500 mark, which is very high,” Eggebrecht said. “We’re very concerned and that’s why I think these mask guidelines are so important, and that they’ve been put back into place to extend it.”
Everybody is looking at the data, keeping a close eye on any trends, in hopes that the state will find its way back into that low-risk category sooner, rather than later.
“It just takes a couple cycles of transmission to really know as we move forward,” Eggebrecht told WTAQ. “The incubation period is 2 to 14 days, so it does take awhile to see improvement. We’re really hopeful with the social distancing along with the masking, that we’ll begin to see a reduction in cases.”
The mask mandate is now set to end November 21st. It was set to end Monday.
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