A4 MONDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2020
Tracking an Outbreak
NGREEN BAY, Wis. — In a town that
lives or dies with its Packers, the meta-
phor takes on a somewhat chilling hue in
the middle of a pandemic.
So, on a game day when the Packers
were taking it to the Texans in Houston,
the scene back home was noticeably sub-
dued, as the coronavirus surged in Wis-
consin and people mostly avoided the
bars that are usually jammed when the
Packers are playing.
“You can’t even really tell that there’s a
game,” lamented Jon Cooper, a 31-year-
old machinist who was having a beer
with friends at Cropsey’s on State, an in-
door bar about a mile and a half from
Lambeau Field, where the Packers play
home games. No one wore masks except
the bartenders, and about 30 people
crowded together around the bar, leav-
ing most of the room empty.
Still, that was busier than most other
places in town, many of which had a
straggler or two watching the game on
big-screen televisions in otherwise
empty rooms — another reminder of how
the pandemic has altered the nation’s fa-
miliar rhythms.
The Great Lakes states are in the grip
of a synchronized spiraling of the pan-
demic. Seven states that border the
lakes, including Wisconsin, are at or near
their all-time-worst daily case totals.
And along with 16 other states, Wiscon-
sin has added more cases over the last
seven days than in any other weeklong
stretch.
More than 41,000 people are currently
hospitalized with the coronavirus in the
United States, a 40 percent rise in the
past month. Daily death tolls have not
risen so sharply, but they are inching up-
ward: the country is now averaging
more than 800 deaths a day for the first
time since mid-September.
Wisconsin, and the Green Bay area in
particular, has seen some of the coun-
try’s most alarming data in recent
weeks. Brown County, which includes
Green Bay, has averaged more than 230
cases a day over the last week, up from
about 50 a day at the start of September
and around 10 in early June.
As of Sunday morning, the Green Bay
metropolitan area ranked 15th nationally
in recent cases per capita; seven other
Wisconsin metro areas ranked even
higher.
So even something as baked in to the
local culture as a Sunday in Green Bay
when the Packers are playing has been
affected.
Eric Genrich, Green Bay’s mayor, said
that coronavirus has drastically changed
the way that people traditionally spend
game day: “The visual when you’re driv-
ing through that area of town and not
seeing those thousands of people all over
the place, tailgating and having a good
time — that’s an adjustment, for sure.”
He cited both the health fears and the
risks to business.
“I think everybody’s really concerned
about what the next few weeks are going
to look like,” he said.
Most people in town are being “pretty
responsible,” the mayor said and were
more likely to get together in homes to
watch the game than in public spaces..
Still, in his own home, Mr. Genrich said
he has been watching the games this sea-
son on TV with just his wife and two chil-
dren. Last year, he said, he was often at
the stadium for games, but now “we’re
just sticking with one another and cheer-
ing from home.”
Kevin Ramirez visited the stadium on
Sunday, though the team was playing an
away game. A Florida native who at-
tended college nearby in Manitowoc, Mr.
Ramirez was back in town for a wedding.
“There’s nothing like a Packers Sun-
day, and just seeing the streets filled with
Packers fans,” said Mr. Ramirez, 27. But
on this Sunday, he said, Green Bay seems
like a “ghost town” compared to how it
looked when he was in school, when the
parking lot would be packed with tailgat-
ing college students and residents.
Mr. Ramirez said that he had been to
Cropsey’s on State, and that he still usu-
ally gathers with friends to watch Pack-
ers games, a habit he hasn’t changed
much, though he no longer tailgates. “We
aren’t too nervous going to a packed bar
and just enjoying our Sunday of football,”
he said. “There’s no other way to watch aPackers game.”
Others were less sanguine. Some were
distressed at any sign of laxity about vi-
rus safety, game day or not.
“It’s really disheartening to see that a
lot of people are not taking it as seri-
ously,” said Emma Foster, a physician as-
sistant who has been working with
Covid-19 patients in Wisconsin. “Me and
my co-workers, we’re completely over-
whelmed by Covid right now.”
She was thrilled to drop by the stadiumand take photos, but she said it was a
good thing that the stadium was empty.
“We’re really happy they’re not letting
fans in here,” Ms. Foster said. “You can
celebrate at home.”
Wisconsin continues to haggle over
pandemic regulations and restrictions.
On Friday, the Wisconsin Supreme Court
blocked Gov. Tony Evers’ emergency or-
der restricting the size of indoor gather-
ings, the latest twist in a long-running
dispute that has pitted the Democratic
governor against a Republican-con-
trolled legislature.
The executive order, issued by Mr. Ev-
ers in early October, limited public gath-
erings to 25 percent of a building or
room’s capacity, a step he said was
needed to rein in the virus’s spread in the
state. But bar owners and other business
groups in Wisconsin have continuously
attempted to block the order, claiming
that they cannot make a living with the
limits.
The powerful Tavern League, which
sued the governor over the order, repre-
sents about 5,000 small businesses, ac-
cording to Scott Stenger, who heads the
league’s government affairs outreach.
“We don’t take suing anybody lightly, let
alone the governor of our state,” Mr.
Stenger said last week. “It’s not some-
thing we’d do before.”
The issue is especially acute in rural
areas, where restaurants and taverns of-
ten do not have official capacity limits.
Under the executive order, such busi-nesses would be limited to 10 patrons at a
time.
On Sunday in Green Bay, though, the
problem was a lack of demand rather
than restrictive rules.
At Stadium View Bar, Grill & Banquet,
people used to pack in shoulder to shoul-
der and spilling out into the streets on
game days. Even cold weather could not
deter locals from tailgating.
Now, the bar has taken out many of its
tables, and while people still come in to
watch the games, it is noticeably quieter.
“It feels sad,” said Amber Wrona, the
banquet manager. “Whether you like the
Packers or not, Green Bay is a football
town. It’s what makes Green Bay go
’round, and it just feels a lot different
around here.”
Ms. Wrona said delivery and takeout
orders do increase significantly on game
days, and that grocery stores are still full
of fans buying food for watching parties
at home. Sunday felt even calmer than
usual this week, she said, perhaps be-
cause of the high infection rates in town.
At Cropsey’s on State, Carol Gezella,
who used to own the place — her son
does now — said she feels “pretty safe”
despite the virus spike, but that she was
worried about the governor’s orders.
“We’re going to do whatever we can to
stay open,” she said.
Though rural areas and small metro-
politan regions have seen some of the
worst outbreaks in recent weeks, many
large cities are now struggling as well.
The counties that include Chicago, Okla-
homa City, Minneapolis, Anchorage and
El Paso all set single-day records on Sat-
urday. Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas asked
federal officials to open an Army medical
center at Fort Bliss to civilian patients to
help ease the strain on El Paso’s hospi-
tals.
And, whether in big cities or small
towns, health experts warn that the
country is heading into the worst surge
in cases yet.
Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former F.D.A. com-
missioner, said in a Sunday appearance
on the CBS program “Face the Nation”
that the United States is at a “dangerous
tipping point.”
“These cases are going to continue to
build,” Dr. Gottlieb said. “There’s really
no backstop here. I don’t see forceful pol-
icy intervention happening any time
soon.”
Still, some Packers fans found hope in
their team’s legacy.
Tom Wartick is a lifelong Packers fan
whose daughter got married on the field.
On Sunday, he was taking pictures along
Lombardi Avenue, named after Vince
Lombardi, the legendary Packers coach
whose statue stands outside Lambeau
Stadium. Mr. Wartick said he felt a true
fan’s sense of uplift.
“Vince Lombardi said it’s OK to get
knocked down — it’s not OK to stay
down,” said Mr. Wartick, 63. “And it’s the
same thing with this Covid virus. It’s a lit-
tle intimidating, but we’ve got to keep
moving forward with life.”‘Vince Lombardi said it’s OK to get knocked down, it’s not OK to stay down.’
Tom Wartick, a lifelong Packers fanA statue of Curly Lambeau, the Packers’ founder, towers over an empty plaza outside the stadium that was named for him, Lambeau Field.PHOTOGRAPHS BY TAYLOR GLASCOCK FOR THE NEW YORK TIMESFOOTBALLGame Day in Green Bay: Empty Sports Bars, Full Hospitals
By GIULIA McDONNELL NIETO DEL RIO
Fans pose for photographs outside of Lambeau Field on Sunday. The atmosphere in Green Bay on Sundays,
even when the Packers are playing on the road, as they were on Sunday, still draws fans of the team.The entrance to Cropsey’s
Bar, where fans and patrons
were urged to wear masks.Lucy Tompkins and Mitch Smith contrib-
uted reporting.
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