WINNEBAGO COUNTY, Wis. (NBC 26) -- Twice this week, Wisconsin tallied more than 1,000 new daily coronavirus cases. Before then, it hadn't happened once in nearly two months.
"With case rates rising, those rates at the state, the number of cases they've had recently is double what we were seeing a month ago," Winnebago County Health Department Director Doug Gieryn said.
Gieryn says his county's positivity rate is up 20 percent this week.
"We are seeing those cases rise fairly quickly now here [in Winnebago Co.]," Gieryn said. "The northern part of our county particularly. We know the Fox Crossing area, the Neenah area."
But Gieryn says a coronavirus uptick isn't a shock.
"Unfortunately, we did expect at some point for cases to start to rise again as soon as we saw people relaxing" he said.
Medical experts say warmer weather could play a part in the recent spread.
"We're kind of stuck between we want to make sure we're isolating and do what we can, but it's summertime," ThedaCare Chief Clinical Officer Dr. Mark Cockley said. "We want to vacation. We want to try to get back to that normal life."
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And Dr. Cockley says the virus is evolving, potentially playing a part in the case increase.
"There are some of those different variants that are now detected in Wisconsin," Cockley said. "And some of those variants that occur, they're a little bit easier to transfer."
Without a state mask mandate, Gieryn warns the state's cases could continue to rise if the community isn't careful.
"The more cases we have, the more hospitalizations we're gonna see," Gieryn said. "And unfortunately, that's gonna be followed by some deaths too that really cut some lives short."
Over the last seven days, Brown and Outagamie counties are averaging 27 new daily confirmed cases, while Winnebago tallies over 21.
Vaccine clinics are scheduled next week at Sunnyview Expo Center in Winnebago Co. Visit www.wcvaccine.org for more info.
