Oshkosh pandemic diary April 14: As case count ticks up, new Council members see COVID-19 as priority

Winnebago County Health Department

By Miles Maguire

Both of the newly elected members of the Oshkosh Common Council say that fighting coronavirus is at the top of their list of priorities.

“The most important immediate challenge is helping guide the city's response to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Mike Ford, an associate professor of public administration at UW Oshkosh. “I want to ensure our residents and businesses have the resources they need to weather this crisis, and to navigate what will be a difficult economic recovery.”

“We’ve got a lot of difficult challenges ahead of us, including pulling our community through the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Lynnsey Erickson, a community health strategist for Winnebago County. “We need to continue to identify needs and gaps in the community, such as shelter for people experiencing homelessness, and support each other and our local businesses.”

Both also said they wanted to emphasize diversity. “I also hope to move forward with steps to improve diversity and equity within the city, from forming a diversity and equity committee to looking at internal hiring practices and policies,” said Erickson.

Added Ford, “I hope to continue to weave inclusivity into the fabric of our government by making equity one of our core performance metrics.”

Ford and Erickson will take their seats April 21.

More positive tests
For a third day in a row, the local count of positive COVID-19 tests went up by two, the Winnebago County Health Department said Tuesday afternoon. The total now stands at 30.

Separately the Wisconsin Department of Health Services reported a statewide increase of 127 positive tests to a total of 3,555. The number of Wisconsin residents who have died from COVID-19 rose by 17 to 170 as of Tuesday afternoon, DHS said.

UWO admissions changes
The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh said Tuesday that it would be joining other UW System schools in changing admissions policies in response to the pandemic. These changes are:

• An immediate reduction of the $50 per university undergraduate application fee to $25 for summer 2020 and beyond (with the exception of UW-Madison).
• Making application fee waivers available for students experiencing financial hardship due to COVID-19. Students who need a fee waiver simply need to contact the UW university to which they are applying and request one.
• Acceptance of unofficial transcripts for admission consideration and additional flexibilities in submitting other application materials.
• Holding students harmless for circumstances out of their control such as the cancellation of ACT or SAT testing dates, or a high school or college moving to a pass-fail grading system.
• Taking campus visit programs online and providing virtual tours.