cases. about 44% of the workers at the plant tested positive. on august 26, at least two people who tested positive reported attending the sturgis motorcycle rally, among other possible exposures. on august 31, the new lisbon correctional institution in juneau county had more than 40 positive cases. september 2020 on september 9, after two days of a test positivity rate over 20%, the university of wisconsin-- madison announced it would pause in-person instruction for two weeks. two large residence halls were quarantined. the august 7–16 sturgis motorcycle rally in south dakota may have contributed to the surge of cases in early september; san diego state epidemiologists estimated that the rally may have been a super spreader event, resulting in 266,000 new covid-19 cases in the us, including some in wisconsin. cases continued to increase with a 150% spike in cases near the end of september. many school districts started the school year with virtual classes. kenosha gave students a choice between full-time classroom or full-time remote instruction after parents demanded an in-person option. at least five students or staff members tested positive since the first day of classes on september 14. october 2020 by october 6, wisconsin was third nationwide for number of new cases capita. the seven-day moving average of new covid-19 cases in wisconsin on october 10 was 2,395; the average rate of new cases nearly tripling over the past month. on 14 october 2020, wisconsin opened a new field hospital at the state fairgrounds near milwaukee. the state reported 3,132 new cases on october 9 as cases and hospitalizations in the state continued to rise. wisconsin's daily cases first exceeded 1,000 on july 21, and had reached 2,000 daily cases on september 17. the governor's office announced a statewide order to limit indoor mass gatherings that went into effect on october 8, prompting a lawsuit to strike down the new mask mandate and restrictions. according to the governor's office the may ruling from the state supreme court that stopped stay-at-home orders from going into effect in the early months of the pandemic did not impact the department of health services authority under existing statutes to impose restrictions on mass gatherings. new daily cases rose nearly everyday from early september, reaching record highs by mid-october. there were 34 deaths in the state on october 13, and 3,279 new cases, 959 new hospitalizations and 243 in intensive care. the metropolitan areas of oshkosh-neenah, appleton and green bay had some of the highest rates nationwide. november 2020 in november, five private schools and some families petitioned the wisconsin supreme court asking that the racine unified school district be prevented from requiring all students to do online learning as opposed to in person instruction. the wisconsin institute for law and liberty filed the petition on behalf of the schools and families. the wisconsin supreme court granted an injunction in favor of the schools and families pending a review of a similar case in dane county. meanwhile, covid-19 cases surged across wisconsin, averaging 5,395 new cases and 43 deaths per day during the month of november. a single day record of 7,989 new cases was set on november 18. december 2020 despite social distancing and other efforts to mitigate spread of the covid-19 disease, eight nuns from the school sisters of notre dame died within a week of each other, including four on the same day, after there was a positive infection confirmed on thanksgiving day by one of the residents of their retirement home, which houses approximately one hundred residents. the retirement home is located in elm grove, wisconsin. across the state, new single day records for covid-19 deaths in wisconsin were set on december 1 (107 deaths) and december 22 (120 deaths). an average of 3,677 new covid-19 cases were reported per day during the first two weeks of december. in late december, a pharmacist with aurora health care allegedly deliberately allowed 57 vials (570 doses) of a moderna covid-19 vaccine to spoil by leaving them out of refrigeration for two nights. after an internal investigation into the matter, police arrested the pharmacist in question. according to the police, the value of the wasted vaccine cost between $8,000 and $11,000. government responses brig. gen. joane mathews, wisconsin's deputy adjutant general for army, answers media questions during a march 12 press conference at the state emergency operations center in madison. schools on march 10, the osceola school district closed schools to sanitize the buildings and buses after a person who attended a regional sports tournament was found to be infected. on march 12, governor tony evers declared a state of emergency. the next day, he ordered the closure of all public and private k-12 schools in the state until at least april 5. most schools in the university of wisconsin system, including madison and stout, have cancelled all in-person classes through early april. mass gatherings on march 16, evers announced restrictions on the number of people that could be present at childcare facilities, limiting it to 10 staff and 50 children at the same time. on march 17, a statewide ban of all gatherings with more than 10 people was announced by the governor. in mid-june, racine county judge jon fredrickson issued a temporary injunction against the city of racine's "forward racine" order. the order limited certain businesses such as gyms, restaurants, and bowling alleys to a capacity of 25% or a maximum of ten persons. the plaintiff, david yandell, claimed that the order jeopardized his business's ability to survive. on july 2, following a sustained high number of new cases, dane county issued order #7 limiting outdoor gatherings to 25 people, indoor gatherings to 10 people, and indoor dining capacity to 25% for restaurants, as well as prohibiting indoor dining in bars, a space of particular concern to health officials. in may 2021, the city of milwaukee announced lifting restrictions effective june 15, 2021. capacity limits were lifted for the milwaukee bucks, milwaukee brewers, festivals, and businesses. at the time of the announcement, the city experienced a rate of infection for the disease at 82 covid-19 cases per 100,000 people and a test positivity rate is 4 percent, with about 29.5 percent of the population fully vaccinated. about two weeks later, the milwaukee bucks announced returning to full capacity for the remainder of the nba playoffs. after the bucks won the nba championship on july 20, the city of milwaukee experienced a surge in covid-19 infections of nearly 500 persons which was a 155 percent rise in the infection rate following the celebration of the championship. the infection rate increase was attributed to possibly a result of the championship parade held for the team and the fact that about 65,000 people gathered in the deer district (the area surrounding the arena where the bucks play) during the championship game. stay at home on march 23, evers announced closures of all non-essential businesses to be signed on tuesday, march 24, and urged citizens to stay at home to reduce the spread of covid-19. on april 16, the 'safer at home' order was extended to be in effect until may 26. on april 17, racine county sheriff christopher schmaling said he planned not to enforce the 'safer at home' order, stating constitutional rights of citizens as his reasoning. his declaration is similar to concerns raised by four sheriffs in the state of michigan. on april 21, the wisconsin state legislature filed suit with the state supreme court, against the governor's 'safer at home' order calling the executive order an overreach of the executive branch's statutory powers. on april 24, hartford mayor tim michalak announced that businesses would be allowed to re-open on monday april 27, despite the 'safer-at-home' order issued by governor evers. he directed the police department not to enforce the 'safer-at-home' order. on may 13, the wisconsin supreme court struck down governor evers "safer-at-home" orders as unconstitutional. on may 14 mike wiza, mayor of stevens point said they had still not received any guidance from the legislature, which made it "very, very difficult" for local law enforcement and the health department. the governor announced on may 18 that the legislature didn't want any state level guidelines. in the absence of a statewide legislative order, the decision left the task of imposing health restrictions to the local governments. dane county reissued the 'safer-at-home' orders nearly in full, and in milwaukee county restrictions were put in place, including a mask mandate. one week after the supreme court decision wisconsin reported 528 new covid-19 cases, the largest single day rise in new covid-19 cases since the start of the pandemic. primary elections on march 27, governor evers asked the legislature to approve a plan to send every registered voter in the state an absentee ballot so they could vote in the democratic and republican primaries, scheduled for april 7, by mail. republicans opposed the plan. in green bay a judge turned down a request to delay the election but other lawsuits move forward. authorities also refused to delay the election, despite the ban on gatherings with over ten persons, even though 111 jurisdictions did not have enough people to staff even a single polling place, and with 60% of all wisconsin towns and cities were reporting staffing shortages. epidemiologists and public health experts said that it was not possible to definitively determine the extent to which the virus spread among wisconsin voters at polling places, due to a lack of testing and contact tracing; the difficulty of determining the location where an infected person acquired the virus; and asymptomatic transmission. mask mandate teens wearing face masks in madison, wisconsin, 2020. on july 30, governor evers declared a public health emergency and issued an emergency order requiring people to wear a face mask in public indoor spaces many cities and counties including green bay, superior, racine, whitewater and milwaukee and dane counties had already implemented mask mandates before the statewide order was issued. a lawsuit challenging the mandate was filed by the wisconsin institute for law and liberty (will) on august 25. the mask mandate was put in place as part of the public health emergency declared in july. according to a poll of registered voters conducted by marquette university, the majority of registered voters support the mandate. on september 22, as cases in the state continued to rise, the mask mandate was extended until november 21. the decision to extend the mandate was criticized by some members of the state legislature. a wisconsin judge denied an injunction request from state republicans on october 12. state republicans filed the injunction seeking to prevent enforcement of the mask mandate, arguing that the governor had wrongfully declared a state of emergency more than once. the judge ruled that the governor had "broad discretion to act whenever conditions in the state constitute a public health emergency." small business owners in green bay, one of the most severely affected cities, have said the economic future of local businesses depends on people wearing masks and following the social distancing guidelines. out of 10,430 potential door county visitors returning surveys from may 14–18, 9,083 (87.1%) said they were willing to wear a mask, and 1,347 (12.9%) said they were not willing to wear a mask. the wisconsin courts have had mixed responses to a lawsuit brought about by the tavern league of wisconsin (the trade association representing the state's bars), who sued to halt the order. after governor evers issued another order in october 2020 limiting the number of people allowed to gather in public locations, a sawyer county judge (john m. yackel) ordered a temporary restraining order halting the order. a few days later, another judge, james babler, from barron county reinstated the order. in september 2020, amid the coronavirus pandemic, will filed lawsuits to stop a face mask mandate in wisconsin. on november 18, governor evers issued orders extending those mandates through mid-january, 2021. other responses business after it was announced that governor evers would extend the 'safer at home' executive order to may 26, the tavern league of wisconsin responded by expressing concerns about the devastating effect on the hospitality industry adversely affected by the order. executive director of the organization pete madland requested a 'soft opening' beginning may 1 with precautions utilized as