At least 13 residences near the UW-Madison campus are under investigation for violating public health guidelines over Halloween weekend as the number of COVID-19 cases continues to rise in Wisconsin.
Public Health Madison & Dane County, in conjunction with the university, the Madison City Attorney’s Office and Madison Police Department, will issue summons and complaints to individuals who did not adhere to local public health guidelines.
The current order mandates indoor social gatherings must be kept to 10 people or less and outdoor gatherings must be capped at 25 people, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Those found in violation of the order may face a $1,000 fine for exceeding the 10-person indoor limit. Some parties violated three this order three times over, meaning hosts could be fined $3,000. One party hosted 91 people, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
“People seem to make exceptions around friends and family, but this disease is tricky — you could feel fine and spread it to others,” city-county health department director Janel Heinrich said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the person you spread it to might not be so lucky. With the unprecedented level of disease in our community, it is more important now than ever to limit contact with others. Gatherings both large and small pose a risk.”
The investigations come as Wisconsin recorded over 5,900 new cases of COVID-19 for the second day in a row and the United States surpassed 100,000 new cases in a single day.
Madison Assistant City Attorney Marci Paulsen told the Wisconsin State Journal that her office will take up “prosecution actions for as many gatherings as we can in order to drive home how important it is to follow public health orders.”
Over the weekend, UW-Madison received 37 complaints through its campus reporting form. Thirty-one students and three student organizations have since been referred to the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards, including nine students who will face emergency suspension, UW spokesperson Meredith McGlone told the Wisconsin State Journal.
According to the university’s COVID-19 dashboard, the student positivity rate hovered around 1.2 percent on Oct. 30 but rose to 3.9 percent on Nov. 1, in conjunction with the end of Halloween weekend.
In a Faculty Senate meeting on Monday, Chancellor Blank described the recent rise in cases as dispersed over campus rather than concentrated to a singular area. McGlone also told the State Journal that it’s too early to attribute new positive cases back to Halloween gatherings.
Dane County currently reports more than 300 new COVID-19 cases a day, with 140 hospitalizations and 35 people in the intensive care unit. The city’s health department said in gatherings of 10 people, there’s a 29 percent chance of a person infected with the coronavirus, with the chances increasing to 50 percent for 20 person gatherings, the Journal Sentinel reported.
McGlone told the State Journal the university would continue to work closely with Madison and Dane County officials to hold violators of the public health guidelines accountable.
