Some of you may be bewildered by the concept of "flattening the curve" and how it fits into your life. This is one of the best explanations of the concept I've seen, and to make it all better it's locally grown. Alexandra Hall, M.D. explains it all in this UW-Stout Video. It is full of good advice about how to stop spreading the virus.
This afternoon (Friday March 13) Governor Evers ordered all schools in the state closed. Governor Evers today ordered the Department of Health Services to issue an order to close all Wisconsin Schools. Under the order all Wisconsin schools must close by March 18. Nearly one million students in the state will be affected and sent home from school. Schools will remain closed until April 5 at which time the closing will be re-evaluated.
The reported number of COVID-19 positive tests in the state increased to 19 today. This is a sharp increase from yesterday, and this quick increase is expected to continue for some time. There have been 169 negative tests, and one patient has recovered.
President Trump is shortly going to do a live stream. He is expected to announce that he is declaring a National Emergency. He is declaring an emergency and allowing access to up to 50 billion dollars. States are going to be setting up emergency centers. He asked every hospital in the country to use their emergency plans. He is giving broad authority to the HHS Secretary and giving maximum authority to hospitals. Hospitals can waive laws to allow them to implement virtual health services.
Currently there is a firehose of news coming through relating to the COVID-19 issues in the area. In an attempt to keep people informed there will be a daily article that will be updated throughout the day. In a lot of cases it will just provide links to other sources of information. This is a very fast-changing story and will undoubtedly continue to change quickly. Many events in the area are being canceled.
It has been quite a day. I spent most of the day at the Red Cedar Watershed Conference, trying to get people to sign up for our daily newsletter by offering gifts. I'll write about that later.
Governor Evers has declared a public health emergency in Wisconsin. This declaration will free up state funds for slowing the spread of the novel coronavirus. Evers signed an executive order making the Department of Health Services the official agency to manage the ongoing crisis. The declaration also makes it possible to activate the National Guard, and charges DATCP with enforcing laws against price gouging.
Update - on March 12 UW-Oshkosh announced they will suspend all classes on March 16 and that classes would resume after spring break on March 30 via alternat means.
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is moving the majority of its classes online after an employee who may have come into contact with the coronavirus became ill, the chancellor announced in an email Tuesday sent at about 5 p.m.