MADISON, WI (WTAQ) – Community testing wrapped up at sites in Brown and Outagamie Counties over the weekend, but what does that mean for the National Guard members who helped staff those sites? One thing it doesn’t mean – is time to relax.
“We’re on Title 32 orders through June 24th and the governor along with governors from most of the other states have requested that extend through July 31st,” says Wisconsin National Guard Adjutant General Paul Knapp, “We’re available and ready to continue testing under state active duty. As long as with the need exists for the guard to assist in this effort – will be here in one of those statuses or another.”
Testing teams that were assigned to local sites will be redeployed to new testing sites across the state.
“Right now, we have a long list of communities who put in a request for our assistance. We’ll be moving through those lists quickly as we can,” Knapp says, “Broke them down into smaller squads so that they’re more deployable and more agile to get out to some more of the long term care facilities and nursing homes to help meet that requirement.”
State health officials say the partnership with the National Guard has certainly led to the ability to increase testing, particularly at community sites. They also point out that expanded testing will continue as the pandemic could last upwards of a year – until a vaccine is created.
Other concerns include what testing will look like if the National Guard is no longer available to assist – and how to handle testing for COVID-19 when influenza returns this fall.
“At some point if the National Guard is not available to us, we have established systems and processes in-county for expanding testing,” says Department of Health Services Deputy Secretary Julie Willems Van Dijk, “We will also have influenza present in our community. So a lot of people are going to have those symptoms, and we need many places for people to easily get tested.”
