MADISON, Wis. — Governor Tony Evers (D-Wisconsin) and top Wisconsin public health officials defended an emergency order limiting public indoor gatherings to 25 percent capacity of buildings and rooms on Tuesday. They told reporters the order is a necessary actions to help hospitals and healthcare workers combatting coronavirus.

“Our healthcare systems are teetering,” Evers said. “They're on the brink and when there's no room at the inn, and that inn is your local hospital, that's a problem for everyone.”

Andrea Palm, secretary-designee of the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, said there were increased hospitalizations across the state and every region is reporting current and imminent hospital staffing shortages in one or more of their facilities.

“We are in a crisis, and to get out of this crisis we need to take action,” Palm said.

Palm said the strain on health systems from the current rise in cases is not sustainable.

“Unless we break this transmission, unless we change our trajectory and get back on track and see our cases start to go down, we will overwhelm those systems,” Palm said. “That is what we talked about in March. That is the absolute place we don't want to be. We've done all these things to try to prevent getting there and we are now closer to that scenario than we ever have been.”

The order is intended to target a source of spread according to Palm.

“The spread of this disease currently is intense and it is community wide, we absolutely see transmission among indoor gatherings and we have throughout,” Palm said. “This virus is very opportunistic and it will find ways to spread if we give it that opportunity.”

Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC) President & CEO Kurt Bauer released a statement criticizing the order. He wrote that businesses are already taking strong steps and the spread is the result of the public not following rules.

“Unfortunately, Gov. Evers’ order will cause even more harm to already-suffering businesses while failing to actually slow the spread of COVID-19 in Wisconsin,” Bauer wrote. “Our state’s employers have been true leaders when it comes to health and safety, and this order will just serve to economically punish them when they can least afford it.”

Evers and his chief legal council Ryan Nilsestuen fielded questions about if the order would be tried in court — as most of the Governor's previous emergency orders have been. Nilsestuen said he believes the order would hold up in court.

“This is a very targeted order, it's using authority from DHS authority that the Supreme Court did not touch in the safer at home decision, in fact they exempted the one part of the safer at home order that was not overruled by the supreme court relied on the exact same provision,” Nilsestuen said.

The Tavern League of Wisconsin posted on its FaceBook Page Tuesday afternoon that it did not believe the order complied with previous State Supreme Court rulings and that the league would be reviewing the order.

Evers again voiced frustration at the constant legal battles to his office's emergency orders surrounding the pandemic.

“At the end of the day, doing orders and having them challenged in court, maybe makes for great theatre, frankly it does nothing to make sure that people are safer here in the state of Wisconsin,” Evers said.

The order is scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. Thursday and run through November 6.