Fake document creates confusion over WI mask mandate’s expiration date

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (WEAU) -A document pretending to be Gov. Tony Evers’ Emergency Order #1 signed on Feb. 4 of this year is causing confusion over Wisconsin’s mask mandate.

The most recent official order sets the mask mandate to expire on April 5, 2021.

In an article about the mask mandate on a website called jdspura.com, a fake document looking similar to the official emergency order from the governor’s office claims the mandate ends earlier. It says: “This Order shall expire on March 20, 2021, or by a subsequent superseding emergency order,” and is dated “this fourth day of February in the year of two thousand twenty-one.”

Unlike the order signed in February from the governor’s website, there is no signature. Additionally, the pdf copy of the fake order is titled 2020_02_04 FebFaceCovering while the official pdf is called EmO01-FebruaryFaceCoverings.

To see the incorrect emergency order, click HERE. To see the real emergency order, click HERE.

Editor’s Note: The governor’s office said when Emergency Order #1 from Feb. 4 was released originally, they “inadvertently included an erroneous copy of the unsigned order, which included holdover language from the governor’s face covering order issued concurrent with Executive Order #104.”