MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin's Governor Tony Evers (D-Wisconsin) took questions from reporters Tuesday — a day in which the state saw record numbers of both coronavirus deaths and cases.
The state is opening an Alternate Care Facility Wednesday at the State Fairgrounds in Milwaukee County to help hospitals handle heavy case loads and free up hospital beds.
“Over the last month our hospitalizations have nearly tripled,” Evers said. “'We hoped we would never have to open he ACF, but now that we have the best case scenario is that we will never have to use it because that will mean our state-wide efforts to stop the spread and flatten the curve will have been successful.”
The ACF will have a 50 patient capacity on its first day. Andrea Palm, Department of Health Services Secretary-Designee, said hospitals or regions of the state will not have to compete for space in the ACT. She said it can grow in capacity as needed up to 530 patients.
Palm said the ACF is intended to take coronavirus patients who are in need of less-intensive care than others.
“The goal is to take pressure off local hospitals to treat the more severely ill COVID patients as well as their non-COVID patient load,” Palm said.
Palm said DHS is in communications with hospitals and healthcare providers, but they don't have an estimate yet as to how many patients the ACF will be asked to take this week. She said hospitals in the the Fox Valley region have been among the ones anticipating a need for space. Though as the coronavirus spreads quickly in Wisconsin, she said the ACF will be prepared to help any hospital that requests aid.
“Our current surge in cases will lead to more hospitalizations, which is why we must be prepared,” Palm said.
Evers used the press conference to again fire back at Republican leaders in the State Legislature for their pandemic response.
“It has been more than 180 days since the legislature last met, instead they have spent their time in the courts trying to thwart every state effort to keep Wisconsinites healthy and safe,” Evers said. “Time and time again we've heard Republicans legislators just want a seat at the table, I have been sitting here at the table, which is the same place I've sat about once a week for months now and I have yet to hear any ideas, plans or solutions.”
Republican leaders have called Evers' emergency orders during the pandemic unconstitutional and illegal. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) released a statement last week about Evers' order to limit indoor gatherings.
“With respect to Emergency Order #3, the governor and secretary-designee may have good intentions but they’re disregarding the law as set forth in the state Supreme Court ruling, Legislature v. Palm,” Vos wrote. “We are confident that if challenged, a Wisconsin judge would find this order invalid as an unpromulgated rule. We are asking Secretary-Designee Palm to submit an emergency rule immediately to the Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules as required by law.”
On Monday the Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules voted along party lines to require Evers to submit the emergency order to its body for review within 30 days. Evers said Tuesday he did not have plans to do that. His legal council called it a political stunt.
“The JCRAR meeting yesterday, it was a pointless exercise,” said Ryan Nilsestuen, Evers' chief legal counsel. “Under statute when JCRAR orders an agency to promulgate a rule they can only do so under limited circumstances, which as the Governor said just don't apply here. Secondly, when JCRAR does order so there's a 30 day deadline to do so, and Emergency Order 3 expires days beforehand.”
Coronavirus testing
As cases continue to rise in Wisconsin, the number of tests administered has risen. Palm said the state has not seen long waits for test turnarounds, nor have they heard of private testing companies having delays like the U.S. Saw in some summer months.
Palm said the state has a testing capacity of about 42,000 per day. Though she said they are always working to improve that, particularly as cases continue to rise.
“We continue to be focused on that, we continue to expand our testing capacity in anticipation of increased demand for testing,” Palm said.
Spectrum News asked public health and healthcare providers around Wisconsin how long they were seeing test results come back. Public Health Madison and Dane County said the median response time over the past two weeks was two days.
The La Crosse County Coulee Region Coronavirus Tracker shows test results coming back within two day nearly 85 percent of the time.
DHS said state-run testing sites — including National Guard ones — are sending tests back within one to three days.
A spokesperson with the Aspirus Wausau Hospital said half of their tests are done in house and come back within 24 hours. The other half are sent to private companies for testing and can take between two-and-a-half to five days to come back.
A spokesperson with Ascension Wisconsin said 90 percent of the tests come back within 48 hours, and added “our health system continues to balance the increasing demand for outpatient testing with inpatient and acute care needs. In some cases, results for outpatients take longer than 48 hours.”
Representatives with Milwaukee, Brown, and Rock County Public Health agencies did not return our inquiry on test response time.