Public Health Madison & Dane County

Today we issued a news release urging residents to follow the Safer at Home order. 

As we have been reiterating over the past month, our best defense against COVID-19 is our collective action. We all have to do our part and follow the Safer at Home order to save lives.

We know how hard our community is working to stay safe, but we are still getting reports of unsafe, prohibited gatherings and nonessential workplaces operating inappropriately.

Since public health orders went into effect in March, our office has received over 135 reports of non-essential businesses operating unlawfully, essential businesses not following social distancing practices, and mass gatherings.

We look into each complaint and follow-up as necessary. The majority of the time our compliance team spends is in providing education about the orders to area businesses. The intention of the order is not to penalize businesses or individuals, but to keep everyone safe during this pandemic.

We ask that everyone exercise good judgment and follow the orders. As a reminder, the Safer at Home order:

• Prohibits all nonessential travel.
• Prohibits social gatherings with people of all ages (including playdates and sleepovers, parties, large family dinners, visitors in your home, non-essential workers in your house).
• Closes all businesses, unless they are defined as essential.
  • If you have reviewed the order, our list of allowed and not allowed businesses, and the FAQs and believe a non-essential businesses is operating unlawfully or an essential business is not following social distancing orders, please email us.

We want to thank the business owners and operators who are closely following the order and have reached out to us for questions and resources. Even essential businesses still in operation must be following social distancing and cleaning best practices. We have an entire section on our website devoted to businesses. Our business liaison team is regularly sending email updates as well.

We are encouraged by the data we’re seeing which hints that COVID-19 cases in Dane County are not growing as rapidly as they once were. However, we need to stay vigilant so we do not see a spike in cases. Thank you for your patience and diligence as we navigate these uncharted waters together.