Wisconsin Will Monitor Whether This Week’s Election Spread Coronavirus

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Wisconsin’s Department of Health Services (DHS) announced it would monitor whether this week’s election caused a spike in coronavirus infections.

“We will continue this important work to ensure that every case is followed up on, contacted, and anyone who may have been exposed notified. We hope the extraordinary efforts taken by local clerks, public health [departments], voters, and poll workers helped minimize any transmission but we stand prepared to respond if that isn’t the case,” DHS Secretary Andrea Palm said in a statement, adding that the manner in which the virus spreads means officials probably won’t know who contracted the virus on the day of the election until sometime next week.

The DHS has added more than 120 “contact tracers” to interview COVID-19 patients and assess who they know and where they’ve gone to gain more concrete knowledge on the spread of the virus.

The number of deaths in the state related to the pandemic has risen to 128.

Wisconsin’s election took place after the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Monday ruled 4-2 that the state’s elections could move forward, overruling Governor Tony Evers’s (D) executive decision to postpone the election amid concerns about in-person voting during the coronavirus pandemic. The move received significant criticism nationwide and the National Guard was dispatched to help amid a poll worker shortage.