MILWAUKEE— As the United States marked 1,000,000 deaths tied to COVID-19 Thursday, public health experts in Wisconsin took time to both look back to the start of the pandemic while also looking ahead at what's still to come.

"It's a devastating number," Dr. Ben Weston, Milwaukee County's chief health policy advisor, said. "It's been devastating to so many families that have lost a loved one. You look just in Wisconsin— we've had 14,000 deaths. The impact that has had on families, on children and on communities is impossible to measure."

While the current case curve in Wisconsin is much lower than it was during the most recent spike in January, Weston was quick to point out that— especially for the unvaccinated and those behind on their booster shots— the threat from COVID-19 is still very real.

"We've seen a six-fold increase in cases in Wisconsin in the last few weeks," Dr. Weston added. "We've seen a doubling of hospitalizations and a 50% increase in ICU patients with COVID in Wisconsin, and unfortunately we're starting to see that increase in deaths as well."

Watch the entire interview above.