Employee of Milwaukee Co. Election Commission tests positive for COVID-19; 64 cases reported in county

MILWAUKEE -- An employee of the Milwaukee County Election Commission has tested positive for the coronavirus, county officials announced on Thursday, March 19.

Milwaukee County Clerk George Christenson indicated the individual, over age 60, has not been in the Milwaukee County Courthouse since Tuesday, March 10. She had not become symptomatic until March 14. No staff from the County Clerk's office or the Milwaukee County Election Commission has been put at risk, officials say. The individual is now at home and doing just fine.

New coronavirus track board 

Dr. Ben Weston introduced a new Milwaukee County coronavirus track board that will soon be available to the public. It looks similar to the Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 map. The track board shows the total number of confirmed cases in Milwaukee County, the confirmed case count by municipality, the confirmed cases by age, and the total confirmed Milwaukee County deaths as a result of COVID-19 (of which there are none at this time).

As of Thursday, March 19, there are 64 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Milwaukee.

If a community is not represented in the graphs or map, it means there are no cases reported in that community.

"The hope here is that this map will provide resources for our hospital systems, for our health departments, for our fire departments," Dr. Weston said. "But it will also be public-facing to inform the public so they have a better understanding of what's going on in our community."

Coordination of agencies involved 

"The coordination between our folks at the county, the folks at the city and Mayor Barrett, the governor's office has been great -- and we communicate more than I imagine most people would guess, every day," said Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele.

Meanwhile, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett noted in the city, all parking restrictions, except those for handicapped parking, have been lifted. This is to ensure people can park close to where they live. People are still encouraged to visit the Milwaukee DPW website for any information related to parking.

"Stay at home as much as you possibly can. The more social isolation we have, which is I think for some people contrary to their essence, I think the more effective we're going to be in dealing with this issue," Barrett said.