Gov. Tony Evers issued a mandatory statewide face mask order Thursday and declared a public health emergency as coronavirus cases continue to surge across Wisconsin and as school officials struggle with how to resume classes safely this fall.

The Wausau School District joins a growing list across the state starting the school year in a virtual setting due to the ongoing spread of COVID-19.“People talk about risk, and how there are lots of factors to balance out in making this decision,” said Tricia Zunker, the district’s school board president. “At least we know here in Wausau that no teachers, no staff members, and no students will die of COVID-19 because they will not be in the building.”

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The last time state lawmakers met, there were just over 3,700 confirmed coronavirus cases in Wisconsin. About 180 Wisconsinites had died of the virus.Now, 878 have died and there are nearly 46,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases.

Masks will be required in two more Wisconsin cities starting Monday after the city councils in Green Bay and Racine narrowly passed mask mandates Tuesday evening.

“With few exceptions, protests in Milwaukee have been peaceful,” Mayor Tom Barrett said in a statement to UpNorthNews. “It is preposterous to suggest Milwaukee needs federal agents to quell unrest or manage peaceful protests. Their presence at this time could be counterproductive.”

Concerned about a growing number of COVID-19 cases that show no sign of letting up, Madison school district officials announced Friday that students and teachers will begin the year learning online.

Republican Sen. Ron Johnson and ex-Gov. Scott Walker on Thursday published an op-ed in the Cap Times hyping up hydroxychloroquine, the malaria drug falsely promoted by President Trump as an effective treatment for the coronavirus.In an op-ed broadly calling for a bipartisan approach to fighting the virus, Walker and Johnson quickly descended into right-wing talking points, advocated for keeping the economy open, and pushed the unproven drug. They argued the medical community — which has widely discredited the use of hydroxychloroquine, or HCQ, in numerous studies — is only against the drug because Trump takes and touts it.

The Thursday report from the Dept. of Health Services contains the third-highest number of the outbreak: 900 new cases, 6.3 percent of 14,271 total tests processed. This brings the seven-day total to a new high of 5,719 and the rolling average of daily new cases above 800 as the state approaches 40,000 people infected with the coronavirus (39,627).

We can't believe we have to say this during a pandemic.