Green Bay Reporter

As the number of COVID-19 cases across the area continue to decrease, northeastern Wisconsin officials are reported to be considering making adjustments to mitigation policies.

"So our new cases are significantly down, the number of people we have in the hospitals are significantly down as well," Bellin Health emergency physician Dr. Brad Burmeister said in a recent Fox11online.com report. "I think our trajectory is pretty clear that this is probably a good time to consider letting up some of our mitigation strategies, including masking."

In light of recent updates to CDC masking guidelines, several schools and counties in northeastern Wisconsin have also moved to lift masking requirements, including schools in Green Bay, Appleton, Oshkosh and Menasha.   

"There isn't no risk at this point of not masking," Burmeister said in the report. "So for some people, mitigation strategies might be something that remain important."

UW Health official Dan Shirley noted that the new CDC guidelines will go a long way toward helping to assess local risk levels.

"It allows us to have a framework to know in our local area if things are creeping back up," he said in the report. "That of course is dependent on good surveillance ... but also having hospitals be able to report what's happening there to add to this measure helps."