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Gov. Evers not looking to create a Wisconsin travel ban list

Drivers in Wisconsin see the Welcome to Wisconsin sign along several interstates and highways across the state. 

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers is not looking to get even with New York, New Jersey or Connecticut.

All three states on Tuesday placed Wisconsin on their coronavirus travel advisory lists.

“The success of our efforts depends on citizens’ willingness to comply with state guidance, socially distance, wear masks and wash their hands, and rising cases around the country continue to threaten our progress, which is why four new states have been added to New York’s travel advisory,” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a news release Tuesday. 

“I guess we could have retribution and say they have to do the same,” Evers joked on a call with reporters on Tuesday, before dismissing the idea. “Our state has so many roads, and other ways to move in and out of our state, that it’s seemingly impossible to enforce.”

Evers said New York City can control who flies into the city, but he added because most of Wisconsin is accessible by car and even boat a travel ban would be unworkable. 

“My goal is to get off New York’s list,” Evers said. “If they put us on their list, it’s because they think we’re having surges here. Which we are.”

Wisconsin’s latest coronavirus count shows an increase in the number of people testing positive, and a much larger increase in the number of people testing negative. 

Wisconsin’s Department of Health Services reported on Wednesday that 821 residents tested positive, and 13,104 residents tested negative. Those numbers actually drove the state’s daily positive-test rate down. Just under 6 percent of people tested for the coronavirus received positive results in the latest report.

Hospitalizations are up as well. DHS reports 295 people are being treated for the virus, 88 of those people are in intensive care units. But those numbers are down from just a month ago.

Wisconsin’s hospital capabilities have never been threatened. Hospitals in the state, particularly in the hub of metro Milwaukee, have never run out of beds. There has been so much space that Milwaukee’s $15 million emergency field hospital has set empty since April.

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