Plan to open county calls for increase in testing

A draft plan to reopen Ozaukee and Washington counties after Gov. Tony Evers’ Safer at Home order ends May 26 was released this week by the Washington Ozaukee Public Health Department.

The “Blueprint for Reopening Washington and Ozaukee Counties” is intended to give officials, businesses and residents a plan for the future as they grapple with the ramifications of the coronavirus, Bailey Murph, the health department’s senior public health strategist, said Wednesday.

“We’ve been anticipating the end of the Safer at Home order and what it could mean for our two counties,” Murph said. “We wanted to make sure to have guidelines in place. We don’t want there to be chaos and a huge surge in cases.”

Murph noted that the department is continuing to seek input on the draft plan, meeting with state health officials, local Chamber of Commerce officials, business owners and the County Board before finalizing the document.

“We’re trying to learn from what has been going on elsewhere and adapt that to our situation,” she said.

The plan, which Murph described as a working document created specifically for the two counties, noted that Ozaukee and Washington counties face unique challenges because of their proximity to Milwaukee and Chicago.

It outlines a four-part plan for the future — phase one, slowing the spread, is the current phase; phase two, reopening the county; phase three, establishing protection and lifting all restrictions; and phase four, rebuilding readiness for the next pandemic.

While many people are anxious for the Safer at Home restrictions to end, the plan notes that reopening the area too soon “will be far more devastating to our health care system and economy to experience waves of virus resurgence rather than properly return to normal when conditions are safe.”

The first phase of the plan calls for people to maintain social distancing, strengthen health care infrastructure and expand testing in order to accurately identify and track Covid-19 cases.

Before April 2, the plan noted, when the health department traced people who had positive test results, others in the household were rarely symptomatic. After April 2, most were symptomatic.

“Anyone who is a close contact of a positive case should be tested,” the report states. “At minimum, anyone who is symptomatic should be tested, as well as household members of all positive cases.”

Until now, the county has only been testing people who are critically ill or hospitalized, health care professionals and first responders who are showing symptoms.

Now, everyone with symptoms is being encouraged to be tested, Murph said, adding the state is working to ramp up testing.

If people can’t get tested through their health care providers, she said, they are encouraged to contact the health department.

The draft plan also encourages a gradual approach to reopening the counties.

“If the process of opening is not done incrementally, the impact could be devastating,” it states.

It also urges officials to consider the implications of major events such as festivals and the tourist season, which it says “will almost certainly result in a resurgence of positive cases.”

The state, it says, should consider travel limitations within Wisconsin, noting that it’s more difficult to trace cases when people come from outside the area.

“We want to get our local government officials to think about that, especially as we come up on the holidays,” Murph said. 

The draft plan states that four criteria should be met before the counties are reopened — 14 or more days of continuous decreases in statewide cases and a decrease in hospitalizations; hospital capacity, operations, staffing and personal protective gear near normal; enough testing capacity to test everyone who needs it; and the capacity to do contact tracing in 24 to 48 hours of everyone who tests positive for the virus.

Even a gradual reopening will result in an increase of community spread, Murph said, both because more people will be tested and because people will be coming into contact with others more frequently.

The draft report calls for everyone to wear cloth masks in public and to resume low-risk recreational activities.

It offers guidelines for businesses to follow when they plan to reopen and, in most cases, for owners to reassess their operations every two weeks. 

For example, bars, restaurants and coffeeshops should have no more than 10 people per table with tables arranged so patrons are at least six feet away from people at the next table. People at a tavern should be at least six feet apart.

Small businesses should limit the number of patrons in the store at any one time, and a daily log of who visits should be considered. Physical distancing should be maintained.

Retail stores should also limit the number of people in the building at any one time.

Barbers, hair and nail salons should keep clients at least six feet from one another and practice physical distancing.

Schools, child care and summer camps should practice social distancing and stagger offerings to decrease interaction between students, while parks, beaches, golf courses, farmers markets and recreational areas such as pools and beer gardens should ensure participants practice physical distancing.

Murph stressed that the document is subject to change, adding she does not know when it will be finalized.

“This is not a law. This is really a recommendation right now,” she said. “We just want to have a plan for when the Safer at Home order is lifted.”