Boone County 4-H Fairgrounds ready to serve as overflow area for COVID-19 patients
LEBANON (WISH) — Boone County’s 4-H Fairgrounds has hosted everything from horse clinics and fish fries to swap meets and VIP pig sales. Now they’re preparing for a new kind of use: an overflow medical area for COVID-19 patients.
“We really need to be as prepared as humanly possible, in case the worst-case scenario happens. So, we really hope we don’t need to use this building,” said Claire Haughton, helath educator with the Boone County Health Department.
The area is designed for those coronavirus patients who may not be well enough to go home but do not need intensive care.
“Our idea here is we’re going to turn this into what could help with surge capacity at Witham Hospital,” said Brett Peppin, director of environmental health with Boone County Health Department.
Peppin told News 8 they need 36 hours’ notice from Boone County’s Unified Command Center to get the area up and running smoothly.
“The first 24 hours of that is fogging for one last sanitation of the building,” Peppin explained. “Then 12 hours to get all of our equipment set up and ready to go.”
Inside, there are 75 patient beds, plus blankets, pillows and necessities.
“There are showers and bathrooms and everything on site here. We’re working with a number of caterers to bring food in for these folks when we bring them in. It will be a 24-hour, 7-days-a-week operation once we stand it up,” Peppin explained.
With social distancing precautions, the building could eventually support about 125 COVID-19 patients.
“We really hope that all these resources we’re putting into it don’t need to be used, but we need to be prepared as much as we can just in case that happens,” Haughton said.
Usually, throughout the year, animals and 4-H projects happen here.It took about four days to sanitize every surface, from top to bottom.
Even the HVAC ventilation system was disinfected: “We need to show some of that Hoosier grit,” Haughton said. “We need to take care of others. We need to take care of ourselves.”
Bottom line, Boone County health officials say you should take COVID-19 seriously.
“The data that I have seen, the reliable research that’s coming from experts that are respected in their field, they are saying yes, this has the potential to get very, very serious. It’s very serious now in areas like New York and Italy,” Haughton said.
Peppin says the Boone County Health Department needs medical and non-medical volunteers.