Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) on Wednesday warned that the state is now “in the Wild West” after the state Supreme Court blocked his bid to extend the statewide stay-at-home order aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus.
“At this point in time, there is no orders. There’s nothing that’s compelling people to do anything other than having chaos here,” Evers told MSNBC’s Ali Velshi. “We’re going to have more cases. We’re going to have more deaths, and it’s a sad occasion for the state.”
The governor said the “good progress” that residents had made during the lockdown, resulting in “one of the lowest numbers of cases per capita in the Midwest,” had been thrown “into chaos” by Wednesday’s 4-3 ruling of the conservative-controlled high court.
He also noted that following the ruling, the trade association Tavern League of Wisconsin told businesses in a statement and on its website that they could “OPEN IMMEDIATELY!”
People began to visit reopened bars immediately after the ruling, the Green Bay Press Gazette reported. However, some counties made the decision to reimpose the stay-at-home orders until later in the month.
Check out Evers’ MSNBC interview here:
Evers echoed his frustration and anger during another interview Wednesday with CNN’s Don Lemon. He warned that ending the lockdown will “cause us to have spikes” in cases of the deadly disease that’s killed more than 85,000 people nationwide.
“We were in a good place as a state. The people of Wisconsin are the ones that should be very upset,” Evers said, later adding, “We were doing a good job, that’s what’s so frustrating.”
One silver lining: Schools in the state will remain closed until fall.
“That’s the one thing they didn’t touch, and that’s a good thing,” he said.
The governor said it may take at least two weeks to agree on a plan for how to tackle the pandemic with the state’s GOP-controlled legislature, which brought the case to the Supreme Court, while many businesses are free to reopen as they wish.
The legislature had initially wanted to delay overturning the order for a week in order to get a plan in place, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported, but the Supreme Court’s justices ruled that it should take immediate effect.
Check out that interview here:
On Twitter, Evers explained why he was “disappointed” with the ruling:
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