4June 2020
With 919.7 validated coronavirus cases per 100,000 people, Racine County has actually become one of the nation's COVID-19 hotspots.
That figure, reported by the state Department of Health Services, is higher than the favorable case rate in the state's 2 other hotspots: Milwaukee County, which has 849.7 cases per 100,000, and Brown County, which has 904.6 cases per 100,000.
Racine Mayor Cory Mason stated Racine has a big working-class community that puts itself at a higher risk of direct exposure to the virus.
“Many of individuals evaluating positive work in health care, operate in assisted living home, drive a bus, bag groceries, work in pharmacies,” Mason stated. “A great deal of them are low-wage employees that don't have paid sick days and do not have medical insurance. These are the people putting themselves at increased exposure so we can get to the grocery store and get our prescriptions filled.”
As of Wednesday, there had actually been 1,797 positive coronavirus cases in Racine County, and 41 deaths associated to the virus. The city of Racine alone had about 1,250 positive cases on Wednesday, Mason stated.
As in Milwaukee, the hardest struck communities have been neighborhoods of color. About 45 percent of the city of Racine's population recognizes as African American or Latino. About 85 percent of the coronavirus cases in the city are people of color, Mason said.
There is likewise disparity between males and females, Mason said. Fifty-seven percent of the favorable cases are women.
“We're deeply worried about how to get ahead of this,” Mason said.
Sign up for day-to-day news! Stay notified with WPR's email newsletter. For the last 2 weeks, Racine has actually used complimentary coronavirus screening. About 4,000 people, or roughly 5 percent of the city's population, have actually been evaluated.
County and city authorities recently moved the testing website to J.I. Case High School on Highway 20 in Mount Pleasant, which Mason stated is easy to get to and on a bus line.
“To get through this, we require wide-spread testing and contract tracing,” Mason stated. “Once we know who has it, we can find out who they may have exposed to coronavirus.”
Racine has been a hotspot for a number of weeks. The number of people checking favorable has actually remained consistent, however has actually hovered around 20 percent– three times the state average, Mason stated.
Since May 26, the city of Racine has gradually reopened with its “ Forward Racine Plan.”Restaurants and bars have actually resumed at minimal capacity and with social distancing guidelines.
Mason said if the city sees a spike in cases now that Memorial Day weekend has passed or with the current Black Lives Matter demonstrations, the city may need to consider further constraints.
“The protests that are going on are easy to understand and justifiable,” Mason stated. “But we need to advise people, we're still in the middle of a pandemic.”