Coronavirus cases rise to new levels in several Midwestern states
Several states in the Midwest, especially those surrounding Minnesota, have been reporting growing coronavirus case numbers in recent days. To find out how bordering states are responding to the rising rates of infection, Cathy Wurzer spoke with two reporters covering outbreaks in the region.
Guests:
Jeremy Fugleberg is the South Dakota news director and regional health correspondent for Forum News Service.
Mary Spicuzza is a reporter with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in Wisconsin.
In Wisconsin, the state is struggling with a surge in COVID-19 cases, with as many as 1 in 5 people tested for the coronavirus coming back positive.
That spread is helping drive record case numbers and filling up hospitals. But Spicuzza said much of the suffering remains unseen, behind hospital doors. She said nurses are struggling to keep up with the illness and death, and frustrated to see others not taking the danger seriously.
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“Helping people face time relatives to say goodbye, talking about their final words before the breathing tube went in, of somebody saying you know I didn’t think it was as bad as it was,” Spicuzza said. “And then leaving the hospital and see people not masking packing into bars. I think that’s where some of that frustration and exhaustion was really hitting them.”
Wisconsin last week opened an emergency field hospital on the state fair grounds near Milwaukee, just days before a fall home and remodeling show opened in another fair building nearby.
The Dakotas are also reporting record numbers of new cases of COVID-19, with three counties in North Dakota ranking among the top 10 highest per capita infections in the country according to the New York Times data.
The state reported a 12th straight day of record case numbers, and state officials say hospitals in Bismarck, N.D., were down to a single available ICU bed on Monday. South Dakota reports more than 8,300 active cases.
Fugleberg said the pandemic is proving difficult to control in the Dakotas.
“We never really had a lot of the restrictions that some states had and yet the COVID fatigue is real here,” Fugleberg said, “and it’s something that health officials come back to time and time again saying you can't be tired of COVID, you have to be serious about masking, have to be serious about social distancing and yet the numbers just keep going up.”