Eau Claire (WQOW) – New COVID-19 cases have plateaued some in Eau Claire County as health officials continue to figure out what is working and what’s not.

One highly-controversial discussion has been a mask mandate.

The Eau Claire City-County Health Department has not put a mask mandate in place but has “strongly encouraged” businesses in the city to require masks.

On Wednesday, health director Lieske Giese said health leaders from across Wisconsin are urging state leaders to put a mask mandate into place.

“Do know that local health department directors around the state are pushing the state very hard to also look at a state mandate and we will continue to do that,” Giese said. “The best thing we could have happen is a state mandate for masks if that is seen as the best practice strategy.”

The good news is that altough COVID-19 cases are still going up, the rate of which is slowing.

In Eau Claire County, 448 people have tested positive and 407 of them have recovered. That means 41 people still have the disease.

The total percent positive in the last 14 days is at 3.5% which is below the desired 5%.

In fact, the only “concerning” metric in Eau Claire County is that 36% of cases in the past 14 days do not know how they picked up COVID-19 which means community spread is a concern for health officials.