MONROE — In early April, to show where communities are — and aren’t — obeying stay-at-home orders and social distancing recommendations, Google started releasing global mobility trends from data collected via the company’s apps on individual smartphones.
The data is broken down by country, state and county, and uses a five-week period in January and February as a baseline for comparison. Unsurprisingly, in Wisconsin the Google reports show a decline in visits to workplaces and in retail and recreation activity and a spike in people staying at home starting in mid-March, when Gov. Tony Evers began issuing orders limiting gatherings and social interaction, ultimately culminating in his “Safer at Home” order March 25. That order was set to expire April 24 but is now extended to May 26.
Compared to the state as a whole, Green County residents are about average for avoiding retail, recreation and workplaces, but 10% better and among the best statewide at staying at home, according to the Google data.
Rick Waski, superintendent of the School District of Monroe, cited Google’s community mobility reports at a Green County Development Corporation meeting April 16 with other community leaders, held via video conference.
“Green County has a lot of rule followers,” he said. “We’re among the most compliant counties in the state.”
Rule-following is working to slow the spread of the coronavirus, according to the state Department of Health.
As of April 16, Green County hadn’t had a new confirmed case in over a week and has “held steady” at nine cases, said Mike Sanders, public information officer for the Green County Emergency Operations Center (EOC).
Lafayette County reported its third and most recent confirmed case April 10. As of April 16, 3,875 people had tested positive in Wisconsin for COVID-19, with a hospitalization rate of 29%, and there were 197 confirmed deaths from the disease.
“Thankfully we’ve had no deaths,” Tanna McKeon, director of Green County Emergency Management, told the county Law Enforcement and Public Safety Committee at its April 14 meeting.
At one point during her report to the committee, McKeon apologized for losing her train of thought.
“I’m sorry, I’m just really tired. Things are starting to get a little fuzzy,” she said. “The last five weeks have been war. I’ve been going 100 miles an hour. ... I’ve done nothing in the last five weeks but (work related to) COVID-19.”
The hard work and vigilance appear to be paying off as the rates of new positive COVID-19 tests slows in Wisconsin. The state’s rate of doubling of infections was 3.4 days in early March, before Safer at Home, the Department of Health reports. In the first two weeks of April, that rate of doubling had slowed to approximately 12 days.
But more deaths from COVID-19 are reported every day and health officials stress that Wisconsinites need to continue social distancing and avoiding non-essential trips outside the home.
RoAnn Warden, director of Green County Public Health, said she didn’t have enough data to comment on whether there was a flattening of the curve of infections in the county, however she is “encouraged that Green County residents have done a good job at doing their part by staying at home where it is safer.”
“Limiting physical contact between people is the best way to slow the spread of COVID-19. This strategy is working by saving lives and keeping our health care system from being overwhelmed, but our work is not done. ... I am urging people to hang in there for a while longer by staying home while we work on creating conditions in order to safely re-start our state and communities,” she wrote in an email to the Times.
Monroe Clinic expects to have availability of rapid testing for COVID-19 within a week, said the hospital’s president, Jane Curran-Meuli.
One of the biggest frustrations of the new coronavirus pandemic is the shortage of testing materials. To conserve tests for the most urgent cases, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in March issued priority standards for testing.
At a meeting with community leaders April 16, Curran-Meuli said Monroe Clinic has had a lot of patients “we haven’t been allowed to test” due to the CDC standards, and she is looking forward to being able to expand testing capabilities.
“We may be able to start testing in the next week, which is good because we’ll be able to understand what’s out in the community,” Curran-Meuli said at the Green County Development Corporation meeting.
In general, she said, the hospital is prepared for COVID-19.
“I just want to assure everyone that we are ready for the surge if it is to happen,” she said.
Another frustration of the pandemic has been meeting demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) like gowns, gloves and surgical masks while up against a severe shortage.
Monroe Clinic has come up with a sterilization process for N95 respirator masks so they can be reused up to 10 times, McKeon said.
Two local businesses, Badger State Ethanol and Minhas Distillery, have started producing another rare commodity: hand sanitizer.
“We have done so many untraditional things in the past two months, it’s crazy, and it’s not going to stop. It’s every single day,” Green County Sheriff Jeff Skatrud said at a recent meeting with county supervisors.
“Green County stepped up, they really have. They have stepped up to do their part.”
