Wisconsin activates field hospital as COVID keeps surging
MADISON,
Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin health officials announced Wednesday that a field
hospital will open next week at the state fairgrounds near Milwaukee as
a surge in COVID-19 cases threatens to overwhelm hospitals.
Wisconsin
has become a hot spot for the disease over the last month, ranking
third nationwide this week in new cases per capita over the last two
weeks. Health experts have attributed the spike to the reopening of
colleges and K-12 schools as well as general fatigue over wearing masks
and socially distancing.
State Department of Health Services
Secretary Andrea Palm told reporters during a video conference that the
facility will open on Oct. 14.
“We hoped this day wouldn’t come,
but unfortunately, Wisconsin is in a much different, more dire place
today and our healthcare systems are beginning to become overwhelmed by
the surge of COVID-19 cases,” Democratic Gov. Tony Evers said in a
statement. “This alternative care facility will take some of the
pressure off our healthcare facilities while expanding the continuum of
care for folks who have COVID-19.”
The move also came as a state judge was considering a lawsuit seeking to strike down Evers’ mandate
that masks be worn in enclosed public spaces. The governor on Tuesday
issued new restrictions on the size of indoor public gatherings through
Nov. 6.
Only 16% of the state’s 11,452 hospital beds were
available as of Tuesday afternoon, according to the DHS. The number of
hospitalized COVID-19 patients had grown to 853, it’s highest during the
pandemic according to the COVID Tracking Project, with 216 in intensive care.
Results
of COVID-19 tests on an additional 262 in-patients in Wisconsin were
pending. The southeastern region of the state had 250 COVID-19 patients,
the most of any of the state’s seven hospital regions.
Nationwide, about 30,000 coronavirus patients are hospitalized, the COVID Tracking Project reported.
The
DHS reported 2,319 new confirmed cases on Wednesday and 16 more deaths.
The state has now seen 138,698 cases and 1,415 deaths since the
pandemic began.
Virus spread is particularly rampant in
northeastern Wisconsin. The Green Bay Packers announced this week that
no home fans would be admitted to home games until the situation
improved, and head coach Matt LaFleur asked area residents to wear masks
and practice social distancing.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
built a 530-bed field hospital on the state fairgrounds in West Allis
just outside Milwaukee in April at the request of Evers’ administration.
Local leaders had warned about the possibility of area hospitals being
overwhelmed, but hospitalizations never reached the point where the
hospital was needed until now.
The hospital will accept patients
from across Wisconsin but is designed to provide low-level care, and it
will accept only patients who have already been hospitalized elsewhere
for at least 24 to 48 hours, according to the state Department of
Administration. Patients who qualify will be transported to the facility
by ambulance. The facility will not accept walk-ins. Palm said the
facility will be ready to accept 50 patients on its first day.
“The
goal of this facility is to transition COVID-19 patients who are less
ill out of hospitals and reserve hospital beds for patients who are more
ill and in need of hospital-level care,” Evers’ office said.
The
hospital will be staffed by volunteers, state workers and National Guard
members, DOA officials said. Patients will not be allowed to have
visitors.
Several other states moved to set up field hospitals in the early stages of the pandemic — at great expense — only to find that they got little to no use, and many were shut down.
This story has been updated to correct that Wisconsin ranked third nationwide in new cases per capita over the last two weeks, not new daily cases.