This is the media briefing from yesterday outlining the criticality of the pandemic in Eau Claire. Eau Claire County's status is becoming very concerning (as with the other counties in the area). The current Eau Claire County status report is attached below.

Who:

• Governor Tony Evers
• Secretary-designee Andrea Palm, Wisconsin Department of Health Services 
• Dr. Ryan Westergaard, Chief Medical Officer, DHS Bureau of Communicable Diseases
• Ryan Nilsestuen, Chief Legal Counsel, Office of the Governor

When: Thursday, October 30, 2020 at 10:00 a.m.            

This is this week's COVID-19 report from Superintendent Joe Zydowsky. Also, according to a recent Twitter message from Zydowsky, an important part of the district's network infrastructure has failed this morning, so much of the district's networking will be not working until it can be replaced, probably sometime tomorrow.

Hello SDMA Families and Staff.

This update includes a lot of important information, so please be patient with the length of this message.

A free COVID-19 testing clinic will be held in Menomonie on Oct. 27, Nov. 10, Nov. 24, and December 8 from 11 AM until 7 PM. Anyone with symptoms of COVID-19 may be tested at the clinic. It will be held in the large animal building at the County Fairgrounds (Dunn County Rec Park) at 620 17th St. South East. More details are available in the graphic above. 

This clinic will be supported by the Wisconsin National Guard.

When the coronavirus started spreading around Wisconsin in the spring of 2020, Dr. Chad Tamez hosted Facebook Live sessions to help patients understand what was initially a mysterious new pathogen. A family physician who co-owns a private practice in West Bend, Tamez seized on the power of social media to discuss new medical findings about the coronavirus.

The People's Map Commission appointed by Governor Evers is continuing to have hearings to receive input on the creation of fair maps in the state. The hearing concentrating on the 5th Congressional District will be held on Oct. 29 from 6-8:30 PM. The deadline for registering to comment during this hearing is 5 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2020. Each speaker will have 3 minutes to speak.

On the surface, the COVID-19 statistics for the last few days paint a really confusing picture. This graph is perhaps the most difficult example (percentage of tests that are positive by day). The world has not gone topsy-turvy but is mostly a side-effect of the upgrade that the state did over the weekend to the WEDSS system. This is the system the state uses to collect COVID-19 and other data from local public health offices.