Month: December 2020

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers on Thursday asked federal officials to prioritize Wisconsin for COVID-19 vaccine distribution, citing concerns about high case numbers, strained hospitals and a lack of statewide mitigation efforts.

He also sent a letter to President Donald Trump and the state’s congressional delegation Thursday saying that Wisconsin needs an additional $466 million for COVID-19 testing, contact tracing, hospitals, vaccine distribution and public messaging for just the first quarter of 2021.

Wisconsin health officials on Wednesday said they expect to begin distributing vaccines in mid-December.

“Our current understanding based on what we have been told by CDC is we will receive 49,725 the first week vaccine is distributed (December 14), but that is subject to change,” said Elizabeth Goodsitt, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health Services. “We expect to get more shipments weekly to follow.”

The state’s COVID-19 response will cost $466 million in the first quarter of 2021, Evers said. That includes:

• $255 million for testing kits and lab diagnostics
• $58 million for testing sites
• $36 million for contact tracing
• $105 million for hospital system surge capacity including continued operation of the field hospital at State Fair Park
• $10 million for vaccine infrastructure readiness
• $2 million for public health guidance and awareness

Yesterday, Governor Tony Evers announced that restaurants and other targeted small businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic will receive $45 million in assistance. The program, We’re All In For Restaurants, is aimed at businesses throughout Wisconsin that, as gathering places, have been challenged from the beginning of the pandemic, and are incredibly important employers and community members.

“Restaurants and other venues have been among the businesses hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Gov. Evers said. “They’ve made the tough decisions to keep employees and customers safe by restricting indoor seating, offering delivery and curbside pick-up, and providing outdoor tables. We greatly appreciate the changes they’ve made to prioritize the health and safety of our communities, but now with winter coming, we are glad to provide this support at a critical time.”

The program will be administered by the Department of Revenue (DOR) in collaboration with WEDC. Unlike previous We’re All In grants, businesses will not have to apply for the grants, but will be identified and contacted directly by the DOR based on the businesses’ state tax records.

According to preliminary DOR estimates, restaurants will account for roughly 95 percent of the approximately 2,000 businesses to receive the funds. The program will target businesses with annual revenues of more than $1 million and less than $7 million. Previous state grant programs have focused on businesses with annual revenues of less than $1 million.

This is the third phase of the We’re All In grant program from WEDC aimed at helping businesses weather the economic storm created by the pandemic. The first phase provided more than $65 million in grants to more than 26,000 businesses statewide, while the second phase is currently disbursing more than $120 million to more than 24,000 small businesses statewide.

Funding for We’re All In programs comes from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act. 

Republicans who control the Wisconsin Senate won’t take up any COVID-19 relief measures before January, the incoming majority leader said Wednesday, even though Assembly Republicans have said they’re open to coming in this month and Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has urged swift action before federal money runs out.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will shorten its recommended quarantine period for people exposed to the coronavirus to as little as seven days, CNN reported.

Under the new guidelines, quarantines can end after seven days for people who test negative and 10 days for those who do not get tests instead of the current 14-day period for both groups.

CDC Director Robert Redfield announced the update Tuesday in a meeting of the White House coronavirus task force, according to CNN, which cited two senior administration officials. Vice President Pence, the head of the task force, has reportedly been pushing the CDC for a review of the recommendations for several months, and the topic has long been under discussion.

The CDC previously defined a close contact as involving continuous exposure to a person with the virus for 15 minutes. It currently defines it as 15 minutes in total within six feet of an infected person. In July, the agency altered its recommendations for how long a person should isolate after first experiencing symptoms, shortening the period from 14 days to 10 if the person is not symptomatic by the end of that period.

A lawsuit over whether the state can release data on businesses in Wisconsin tied to COVID-19 outbreaks will proceed after a judge on Monday denied motions from the state and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel to dismiss the case.

The state’s largest business lobby, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, sued to stop the release of the data in October , arguing that businesses could suffer “irreparable harm.”

In a hearing that lasted three hours Monday, WMC attorney Ryan Walsh argued that the data is private medical information and that the state has to prove the records cannot be used to identify individuals who had COVID-19. “They claim they have been attentive to that, but ‘trust us’ is not good enough here,” Walsh said.

The records in question contain data on roughly a thousand Wisconsin businesses with 25 or more employees that have had at least two employees test positive or identify as close contacts.

The Journal Sentinel requested the records in June after workers at food processing plants and residents at nursing homes told the newspaper they were left in the dark about outbreaks at their facilities and had to learn about cases through word of mouth.

In her motion to dismiss the lawsuit, Assistant Attorney General Anne Bensky, representing the state, argued that the WMC had no standing to sue.

But Judge Lloyd Carter of the Waukesha County Circuit Court sided with the business lobby and said he was concerned that releasing the data could plaster businesses with a “scarlet letter.”

“We’re talking about businesses who are teetering on the brink of failure,” Carter said. “We’re talking about release of data with potential for irreparable harm to those businesses.”