The Milwaukee health commissioner announced that seven people appear to have contracted the coronavirus while voting in Wisconsin’s controversial primary elections.
Wisconsin held its primaries on April 7 despite several attempts to have the election postponed or conducted via mail out of fears that the coronavirus pandemic could harm voters. Those concerns now appear to have become a reality for several voters.
According to Milwaukee Health Commissioner Jeanette Kowalik, six voters and one poll worker have confirmed cases of COVID-19. Kowalik noted that public health officials have been monitoring the cases but have not confirmed whether the infections were concentrated at one of the city’s five polling stations or if any of the cases were fatal.
“There needs to be a little bit more analysis so we can connect the dots, that’s why case investigation and contact tracing is so important,” she told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Monday.
Kowalik explained that the city is working to trace the cases to notify others who may have been infected and is tracking the time frame during which any of the voters were in the polling place to help other residents monitor their risk.
“As you recall, there were people that were in line for a very long time to get their vote in, so if you figure out around a range of time when someone was there or in the polling sites or in the line, connect to someone who was an actual case, that’s when we would do notifications,” she said.
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett noted that nearly 3,500 voters visited each of the city’s polling stations. He explained that the turnout is one reason he advocated for postponing the election, saying, “This will tell you why we were so adamant about trying to not have this occur.”
Department of Health Services Secretary Andrea Palm said there has been no statewide evidence of an uptick in cases because of the election. Palm explained that the state does not have enough evidence to draw a connection because a voter may have been infected and has yet to show symptoms as the virus can wait 14 or more days before presenting symptoms. Tuesday is the 14th day following the election.
As of Monday, the state had more than 4,500 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 234 related deaths.
