Beginning Thursday, everyone age two and older in Dane County will be required to wear a mask in indoor public places because of an increase in COVID-19 cases. This has Milwaukee leaders wondering if they should do the same.
The Milwaukee Health Department says the city is seeing about 256 new cases per day, but for now the numbers are starting to level off.
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett says he’ll decide later whether to push to bring back the city’s mask requirement. The Milwaukee Common Council is currently on August break and would likely take up an ordinance, like it approved earlier in the pandemic, instead of an order coming from the city health department.
“We are monitoring these numbers very, very closely and when the council returns in the beginning of September, we’ll see if that’s the appropriate step,” Barrett says.
Meanwhile, Barrett says the focus is on vaccines. He says nearly 52% of adults in Milwaukee are fully vaccinated and a number of vaccine clinics are being held across the city in the next week.
