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With the recent rise in COVID-19 cases in Eau Claire County, local partners representing business, education, healthcare, and government are jointlyurging the Eau Claire community to wear a mask while in public. These same agencies have been collaborating for months on the local response to COVID-19 through testing, providing PPE, and long-term planning for local economic recovery. “We’re so fortunate to have excellent partnership in this community across these different sectors,” said Lieske Giese, Eau Claire City-County Health Department Director.

Chippewa County Department of Public Health, with assistance from the Wisconsin National Guard, will provide free COVID-19 nasal swab testing on Monday, July 20, 2020 from 11:00 AM – 7:00 PM. The event, which is open to the public, will have drive-through andwalk-up style testing at the Northern Wisconsin State Fairgrounds (225 Edward Street, Chippewa Falls, WI, 54729). Community members do not need to be experiencing symptoms to be tested. However, it is strongly encouraged that anyone who is experiencing

Eau Claire police are asking people to avoid the area around the U.S. Bank on West Hamilton Avenue. They say they’re dealing with an active situation and they will update the public as soon as possible. The bank is on the southwest side of the city, near the State Highway-37 on ramp to Interstate-94. 

The Eau Claire Marathon is virtual this year. It’s the Eau Claire Marathon 2.0. The race was supposed to be run at the end of September, but organizers were concerned with the large number of people who would’ve gathered to participate. They said it wouldn’t have been possible to comply with Eau Claire’s public health order.

A new city initiative will allow people to adopt the local parks in Eau Claire. Adopting a park means volunteer groups or individuals that apply will be assigned sections of parks to beautify. They’ll plant flower beds and remove invasive species from Owen and Phoenix parks. Once assigned, groups will be responsible for their section for two years. Eau Claire Parks and Recreation says anyone interested in volunteering can participate. 

A new report shows Wisconsin’s young adult voters could have major influence on the 2020 election. The Tufts University Report shows Wisconsin voters aged 18-to-29 are in the 100th percentile for voter turnout, or their likelihood to cast their ballot. The same age group also ranked the highest for competition between a democratic or republican vote. Wisconsin is a toss-up, according to the report. 

Another popular event has made the call to cancel. Festival in the Pines has decided to cancel the 38th annual event. Many considerations were talked about before making this decision and after watching the development of COVID-19 and wanting to keep vendors, volunteers, sponsors, and patrons safe, the decision was made to take the Festival off the calendar for 2020.

Wisconsin’s governor says parents should expect to send their kids to school this fall. Governor Tony Evers yesterday said there are concerns about going back to school during the coronavirus, but he said most schools in the state should open by September 1st. The governor is not saying if that means in-person or online classes. Evers says the decision about what the new school year will look like is up to local schools.

Just about everyone has their power back after the latest round of storms in the Chippewa Valley, but the same can’t be said about their trees. Yesterday’s storms knocked out the power and knocked down some trees across the area. In Augusta, high winds knocked a large tree into a house. There are no reports of any injuries because of the storms.

The numbers in Wisconsin’s latest coronavirus tally are bigger than we have been seeing in days past.  The Department of Health Services yesterday said a one-day record 964 people tested positive for the virus, and a one-day record 13-thousand-716 people tested negative. Those numbers actually drove the state’s positive test rate down by almost a full point to just over six-and-a-half percent.