GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – As the state reopens and confirmed COVID-19 cases continue to rise, Brown County leaders say they are looking at new ways to help lower the prevalence of the virus through the use of facemasks.
Officials say they’re looking into an ordinance that would require people to wear masks in public.
“I think we were all wondering less than a month ago, were we in the eye of the storm, or perhaps did we get through this? The reality is we’re starting to see the edges of the eye come open again,” said Brown County Executive Troy Streckenbach.
Over the weekend Brown County Health officials confirmed 88 new positive cases of COVID-19 and three additional deaths.
Right now, Brown County can only recommend people use preventative measures like social distancing and wearing a mask in public.
“The fact that we’re one of the few states that doesn’t have some form of order talking about masks in the public, I think that’s another conversation that probably needs to start to take place,” said Streckenbach. “In Boston, Massachusetts where they were seeing on a daily average of about 22,000 cases a day, they’ve been able to really put that down and one of the measures was requiring masking.”
Brown County leaders say the Wisconsin Counties Association is drafting a proposed ordinance regarding face coverings in public.
“At a local level it needs to be reinforced by an ordinance that allows it to actually be enforceable,” said Streckenbach. “As we watched what happened previously with the state orders and what happened with the state Supreme Court, that puts some question with the ability for the public health officer to put in an order that’s more blanket.”
“Enforcement is the difficult part of those orders so we have to make sure we have appropriate ordinances so that there are penalties for people that fail to comply,” said Brown County Counsel David Hemery. “What WCA is doing is trying to come out with a model proposed ordinance that all counties could follow so that there would be consistency across the state.”
Currently, Brown County says it hasn’t received a request for any order requiring the use of facemasks.
As of Monday, Brown County has 2,857 positive coronavirus cases with 88 of those confirmed over the weekend.
Officials say there are 14 people being hospitalized for the virus and 2,544 people are out of isolation.
Three more deaths were reported over the weekend. They are
- A 29-year-old woman from the zip code 54301
- A 63-year-old woman from the zip code 54304
- A 87-year-old woman from the zip code 54162
There’s now a total of 42 deaths in the county.
The briefing comes as daily coronavirus case numbers continue to rise in Wisconsin.
