Guard members have COVID symptoms after election

Fifteen people in Wisconsin have tested positive for the coronavirus after having voted in-person in the April 7 election or after having worked at the polls, a state health official said Wednesday.

Also, five Wisconsin National Guard members who helped staff polls on election day have reported symptoms of COVID-19 but the one who was tested came back as negative, said Maj. Gen. Paul Knapp.

Wisconsin Department of Health Services Deputy Secretary Julie Willems Van Dijk said despite 15 people who were at the polls on election day testing positive, the state can’t say whether they became infected at the polls.

“We have correlation, they voted and were at the polls, but we don’t have causation,” she said.

Milwaukee health officials have previously said they identified seven people who were at the polls who tested positive for COVID-19, but it was also too early to say whether they contracted the virus there. It wasn’t clear whether the 15 cases mentioned on Wednesday included the seven Milwaukee cases.

Health officials had said ahead of the April 7 election they were concerned about a spike in cornavirus cases due to in-person voting. Those concerns were heightened after voters had to wait in line for hours in close proximity at polling sites in Milwaukee and Green Bay.