Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes On COVID Spike - NPR

Mandela Barnes (seen here in June 2019) says the state is setting up alternate care facilities in case hospitals are overrun as coronavirus cases spike.

Mandela Barnes (seen here in June 2019) says the state is setting up alternate care facilities in case hospitals are overrun as coronavirus cases spike.

The coronavirus is now spreading through more than a dozen states, including Wisconsin.

The state is averaging 2,840 new cases per day, an increase of 22% from the average two weeks earlier.

In total, 158,578 people in Wisconsin have tested positive for the virus and 1,536 people have died.

Mandela Barnes, a Democrat, believes there are a number of factors driving the skyrocketing number of cases.

with weather here in Wisconsin, which doesn't always happen," he says during an interview on All Things Considered.

To help meet that demand, the state opened a pop-up hospital at the Wisconsin State Fair Park outside Milwaukee.

"Unfortunately, it feels like Republicans in the legislature would rather fight us than fight the virus," Barnes says.

Here are excerpts from the interview, in which Barnes discusses how the state plans to address the uptick in cases?

in case the area just north of Milwaukee becomes overwhelmed, and the hospitals are overrun, to be able to segregate and treat the COVID patients separately from the rest of the people in the hospital.

We spoke with an infectious disease expert from Green Bay a few days ago who said the state is just calling people who've tested positive and saying, "Please reach out to all of your contacts yourself." Is it your sense that Wisconsin's contact tracing system doesn't have the capacity to meet the need right now.