The state’s chief medical officer says there’s still time, to stem the tide of COVID-19 infections across Wisconsin.
“I think it’s important to understand that, there’s still time to turn this around. We know what to do to reduce transmission, to bend the curve and we need to do it,” Dr. Ryan Westergaard said on Friday.
Throughout the pandemic, state and public health officials have stressed the importance of hand washing, social distancing, and wearing face masks. All of those things can help to slow the spread of the virus.
“We can actually turn the corner,” Westergaard said. “We can do the things. It’s been shown in many other places, that even when infection rates are high, that we can turn it around. But we have to really get organized and really do it well, very soon.”
Westergaard’s comments on Friday came before the state surpassed 2,000 COVID-19 deaths attributed to COVID-19, with 59 reported on Saturday.
Sixteen more on Sunday brought the total to 2,047 lives lost here since the start of the global pandemic. The state Department of Healthe Services on Sunday reported nearly 3,500 new cases of COVID-19, with a positive test rate of just over 19 percent. There were 352 COVID patients admitted to hospitals over the weekend.
“The worst case scenario is, it’s really just getting started,” Westergaard said. “It’s probably fewer than ten percent of Wisconsin residents have been infected, which means 90 percent are still unexposed, and susceptible. Which means the expectation if we don’t do very aggressive things to slow the spread, this could continue and get worse.”