As you will see if you look at the COVID graphs for today on the site, the reporting from the state was a little disrupted over the weekend as the Wisconsin Electronic Disease Surveillance System was being upgraded to be more flexible and powerful. A lot of data flowed out of the system again this afternoon after a weekend period of no reporting. DHS recommends looking at the 7-day average of cases rather than individual days, as that makes the general trends much clearer. 

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In today's media briefing Governor Evers talks about funding for broadband as part of recovering from the pandemic. More information on the broadband grants is included below. The press conference also covers the dangerous state of hospital bed availability in the state and the rapid increase in COVID-19 cases.

Who:

This morning Sawyer County Circuit Judge John Yackel placed a temporary order to stop the enforcement of the state order limiting the size of indoor businesses to 25% if capacity. The order was in response to a lawsuit brought by the Wisconsin Tavern League. In a statement yesterday League President Chris Marsicano stated the order by DHS Secretary-Designee Andrea Palm was "invalid and unenforceable" and businesses cannot survive a 75% cut in customers."

A Wisconsin judge has ruled in favor of Governor Evers in a lawsuit brought by state Republicans and the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty. The case attempted to stop the governor from issuing an order requiring the wearing of face masks, and, more extensively, the ability of the governor to issue health orders in an emergency.

The Eau Claire City-County Health Department has released an updated COVID-19 situation report. Locally the numbers have become more under control recently, despite new state-wide records. Nonetheless, the statistics are still very high and concerning, particularly since they are making contact tracing very difficult through the whole Chippewa Valley.

Wisconsin set a new record of COVID-19 cases, with 3,132 new cases. This marks the first time that the number of new cases in a single day has surpassed 3000. There are currently almost 16,800 active cases in the state.

The number of hospitalizations has also reached a new high, with 907 people hospitalized, which is 238 more than a week ago. Hospitals in some parts of the state are now reaching their capacity. 228 people are in ICU in the hospitals.