KESHENA, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Menominee County has Wisconsin’s second lowest population, with under 5,000 people, but the highest rate of COVID-19 cases out of the state’s 72 counties.
With 452 cases and two deaths, about 1 in 10 people have been infected, as of Friday.
“Our surges in Wisconsin aren’t made up, they’re real,” Shawano-Menominee Counties Health Officer Theresa Harmala told FOX 11.
“I lost my uncle a week ago to it, it was completely avoidable if he hadn’t had a visitor,” McKaylee Duquain said. “I got a text from him the day he passed and that’s it — I just wish I would’ve answered him back if I had known that he was going to go.”
Duquain tells FOX 11 she wishes people in her area would take COVID-19 more seriously… she understands how serious the consequences are. Yet, she also understands why the area has been hit hard.
“We come from big families and we always gather, families are important to us and that is part of our culture. So it is hard to social distance considering the culture, but it’s just something we’re going to have to do until this is done; but no one wants to do it.”
Bernard Doud Jr. blames local bars for the spread.
“I drive by and see them in the window and they don’t have any masks on so I think that’s how it gets passed.”
Other people are focused on positives.
“It took quite a while for it to get to the reservation, there was a while when nobody had nothing,” Macksie Chevalier said. “In the last two months or so it’s been coming here quite a bit.”
“I feel our tribe is doing a really good job,” Macksie’s wife Irene added.
Most people had one thing in common… they’ve been isolating at home except for essential trips.
Cases appear to have leveled off for now. The state reports the area has not had any significant change in coronavirus activity over the last two weeks.
