I'm sorry to hear this. Hope he gets better soon!

I hope he gets better and is isolating himself from his family and the rest of the public.

More cases identified, could it be due to more widespread testing? Have hospitalizations or deaths gone up? If not, number of new cases is a nothingburger.

The thing I watch for is the % of positive cases of that days' total test results. That number tends to jump around a lot. Today, the number of positive cases was 8% of the total tests. A couple of days ago it was 2 something percent; 5% on Tuesday; a day or two before that, it was 8%. Wisconsin is doing a lot more testing now, so expect the raw number of cases to increase because of that. Keep an eye of the % of positives relative to total tests for some context.

We were out a bit on Monday. I've not been leaving the house prior. Was shocked to see how few customers were wearing masks. All the employees were masked but the customers generally were not. (Maybe 20-25% of customers were masked.) No consideration for the employees who have been manning the trenches during all this demonstrated by people who cannot of do not think outside their own little sphere of existence. Or for other customers. And many of the unmasked were seasoned citizens, people who should have learned something over the years. I would more expect it from people under 30 who are still thinking they are immortal. But, no, a lot them were old and boorish.

In the Eau Claire area, the age group with the most cases is 20-29. I was at the grocery store the other day, and about half the people were wearing masks. My husband went into town today, was shocked at the lack of masks being worn.

I have family in Vilas county, always worry about them.

Our Chief Health officer Dr. Teresa Tam said we should all wear masks from now on. She said as we are out more it is better to have that as our third go to. 1 and 2 being wash our hands lots and socially distance ourselves. I am continuing to do all three as I have always done.

I wear a mask but most people except for my sisters don't wear one around me.

I hope they don't have it because I know people who wear masks and get the virus under their masks tend to get the virus more easily. It festers in the warm enclosed moist environment that is our breath under the mask.

Elmer....explain Sweden. They didn't lock down....at all....and have 3124 cases per 1 million. The USA has 4811 per 1 million. A lot of people think locking down didn't help. You have to see it from their point of view. Accept there is more than one way of looking at this.

Traffic accidents this year for the world is 520,346. Deaths from covid-19 329,000.

I'm still wearing a mask, for the next 6 months at least....standing 12' away from neighbors I talk to.. ...but I understand their viewpoint.

sleeperblues....I hope he feels better and I wish him a speedy recovery...and a healthy, happy family, free of covid.

Nicole, take a look at these and tell me what you think. I looked quickly and tried to get pieces that appeared factually based and from legitimate sources. Things seem to not be going well in Sweden.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/did-sweden-make-the-right-call-on-limiting-its-lockdown/2020/05/18/7ac732ac-96d9-11ea-91d7-cf4423d47683_story.html

https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/28759/the-swedish-model-is-a-failure-not-a-panacea

https://www.businessinsider.com/sweden-coronavirus-per-capita-death-rate-among-highest-2020-5

Elmer.....I've got sanding & painting to do. I read the 1st article. Quote"Sweden’s death rate remained lower than those of Britain, France, Italy and Spain, which all imposed strict lockdowns. The virus ravaged Sweden’s nursing homes, which accounted for a large portion of the deaths; the government was slow to restrict visits to them."

What I take away from this.....old age and obesity is a factor in the death rate. New York for instance, had a large population of obese people. Locking down nursing homes was essential. It wasn't done quickly enough......anywhere. The virus was unknown to us....and the world.

I just noticed this on the WI DHS website:

The number of people with negative test results includes only Wisconsin residents who had negative test results reported electronically to DHS. As a result, this number underestimates the total number of Wisconsin residents with negative test results.

Which means that looking as the percentage of positives doesn't tell you much when the negative results are under-reported.

We have a planned trip to visit my brother at his cabin in the Eau Claire area of Wisconsin over the 4th of July week. We haven't cancelled it yet but I'm keeping an eye on the trend of the virus there. Neighboring Minnesota is also trending in the wrong direction in the last few weeks.

Eau Claire is looking OK, least ways not bad. I would stay clear of Milwaukee, Brown, LaCrosse & Dane counties--those are the counties reporting large increases. My county has been holding steady at only seven cases so far.

For those interested, read up on how South Korea has dealt with Covid without going into full lockdown. One significant part of it is what they learned from dealing with SARS & MERS.

What worked in SK would not work here. People are used to doing what their government tells them along with wearing masks is common.

Another article about the tens of thousands of lives that would have been saved in the US had lockdowns been implemented ONE WEEK earlier.

Lockdown delays caused more deaths

What worked in SK would not work here.

That is too broad of a dismissal. Aspects of what SK did would work here and are being implemented--wide scale testing & contact tracing at the get-go, for example. Others aspects, I agree, would be a hard sell in the US, some to the point of being outright unconstitutional.

"Others aspects, I agree, would be a hard sell in the US, some to the point of being outright unconstitutional"

Causing others to get sick and possibly die isn't a constitutional right. Try some common sense.

sleeperblues -- Oh, I'm so sorry. Doesn't sound so good for your BIL. Might that part of the family think a little differently now?

I really am afraid that tracing and isolating will not work in many places in the US, but not for any logical or legal reason. We've become a nation of self-involved, *special* people. Maybe the virus will eventually humble some.

Our local paper surveyed non-mask wearers in our community and the majority believe the virus is a hoax/left-wing conspiracy and they won't be fooled by it. A large number also stated they believe wearing masks spreads the virus. And #3 was "it's not worse than the flu".

528 yesterday, 472 today. You can try and manipulate numbers however you want, that is still 1,000 more people infected in Wisconsin than two days ago. It appears that 16% of those will be hospitalized at some point, so that is 160 people that will become gravely ill.

Chisue, thank you for your concern. I hope he does well, and he is not hospitalized at this point. We were not surprised that he contracted it, and his wife has a cough and has been tested today.

Kadefol, that seems to be the way it is here until they contract the virus. That's what's playing out in my family.

What worked in SK might have worked but since it is well past the beginning is why I commented as I did. Even now SK is having to tighten restrictions again. Try imagining the population of the US doing what SK did? It would not have happened. Even in this area where people that attend church have been asked to sign in when they attend with the church so if someone attends services everyone can be traced and notified to contact their doctor people are refusing to sign in.

Wisconsin began opening this week without statewide restrictions or guidance. That was left to the counties. As a result, we have a hodge-podge set of rules across the state. Some counties are maintaining some restrictions while others have left it to individual communities. Its a mess. If there will be an ill effect due to this opening, it won't show until one to two weeks have passed, the incubation time for COVID-19 to show serious symptoms. Somehow, a number of folks have forgotten this. If Wisconsin's opening causes a spike of infections, I would expect to see that beginning at the end of May through the first week of June. The bomb has been dropped; We have to wait for up to 2 weeks to know if its a dud or not.

Not true. Symptoms can show as quickly at 2 days, but usually show in 5-6 days and can take as much as two weeks. I think we are seeing the result of the opening in the spike of cases.

“... people refusing to sign in” at church in case contact tracing is needed. Some people in my area say that if they are contacted for tracing, they won’t answer the questions. A lot of people refuse to wear masks & disregard social distancing. The Ohio State Fair, scheduled for August, was cancelled yesterday. OMG, the whining & complaining about the tyranny of it was unbelievable.

The level of ignorance, as well as its prevalence, has been a real eye opener for me in this pandemic.

I think this may have been posted elsewhere before, but I have to go make dinner so no time to search. This is still the best article I've seen on explaining the virus and understanding why infections/death continue to occur.

The Risks - Know Them - Avoid Them

By Erin Bromage | May 6, 2020 (updated periodically)

(Her credentials and intent of this post on COVID-19 are
listed at: https://www.erinbromage.com/post/about-the-author-professor-erin-bromage)

(excerpt)

It seems many people are breathing some relief, and I’m not
sure why. An epidemic curve has a relatively predictable upslope and once the
peak is reached, the back slope can also be predicted. We have robust data from
the outbreaks in China and Italy, that shows the backside of the mortality
curve declines slowly, with deaths persisting for months. Assuming we have just
crested in deaths at 70k, it is possible that we lose another 70,000 people
over the next 6 weeks as we come off that peak. That's what's going to happen
with a lockdown.

As states reopen, and we give the virus more fuel, all bets
are off. I understand the reasons for reopening the economy, but I've said
before, if you don't solve the biology, the economy won't recover.

https://www.erinbromage.com/post/the-risks-know-them-avoid-them?campaign_id=9&emc=edit_nn_20200511&instance_id=18384&nl=the-morning&regi_id=127388736&segment_id=27239&te=1&user_id=0ae9199a646961c015d2bd26f2abc5bf

There are now US stores which are refusing entry to people who wear masks. I wonder if that'll become a new trend.

Shops around the US make headlines for denying entry to those wearing masks as protesters argue against preventative measures in the name of freedom