Although the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down the statewide mask mandate, area doctors said masking up is still an important step in ending the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The recommendation from the medical community really is completely unchanged," said Dr. Brad Burmeister, an emergency physician with Bellin Health. "If you’re going to be going into a public space where there are people who don’t live in your own household, you should really be masking up to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.”
Some counties and municipalities in Northeast Wisconsin have enacted their own mask mandates after the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down the statewide mandate this week.
Those that require the use of masks include:
- De Pere
- Green Bay
- Oshkosh
- Outagamie County (except in the city of Appleton and the Oneida Nation)
Those that recommend the use of masks include:
- Brown County
- Fond du Lac County
- Kewaunee County (advisory expired on March 31)
- Marinette County
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services reported Friday an uptick in the number of new COVID-19 cases. It's the highest daily case count in the state since mid-February.
According to state health officials, 875 tests came back positive for the virus. That number is up nearly 41 percent from the previous day's report.
Eight new deaths were also reported, including someone under the age of 20.
"This virus continues to affect people’s lives; some young people, some old people," Burmeister said. "We want to do whatever we can from having those case numbers go up, preventing hospitalizations."
That concern has increased as cases involving COVID-19 variants have been detected in Wisconsin and across the country.
Prevea Health sent NBC26 the following statement in regard to using face coverings:
Scientific evidence, which is critical in the practice of health care, shows us masking can significantly help to reduce the spread of COVID-19. This is especially critical during this time as more contagious strains of the deadly COVID-19 virus have been detected not only in Wisconsin and neighboring states, but in our local communities. In the best possible interests of public health and safety, now is not the time to unmask. We urge all to continue mask wearing and physical distancing as we continue to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. While we now have vaccines to offer us more hope, the fight against this disease is not over as many more need to be immunized.
As of Friday, DHS reported nearly 3 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered.
While Wisconsin is making progress with administering the COVID-19 vaccine, Burmeister said the state isn't quite at the point where it can rely on the vaccine alone to prevent high case numbers and hospitalizations. He said people need to continue masking up, social distancing and practicing good hand hygiene.
"If we can just hang on a little bit longer as we vaccinate more and more people, we’ll be able to start continuing to give up some of these public health precautions that have been so necessary for us this far in the pandemic," Burmeister said.
