BROWN COUNTY, WI (WTAQ) – The Wisconsin National Guard is gearing up to expand its mission to fight the coronavirus here in Brown County.
“Due to the – what I’ll call an outbreak – in some of the industries there in Green Bay,” says Adjutant General Paul Knapp.
A small team has already been working with public health officials and emergency managers in the county for the past few days. But more help is on the way.
“We’ve had a liaison team up there for the past few days working with the local public health officials, emergency managers, who are doing a great job in communicating with health providers in the area,” Knapp says, “Right now, I have two teams earmarked for that operation. But that could go up or down depending on the demand from the local public health and healthcare community.”
The National Guard members will work closely with local officials and personnel to figure out a plan of action.
“We work with those individuals to pick a location and method of testing,” Knapp says, “Getting widespread and in some cases targeted testing out to that area in Brown County…Actually go into a specific workplace or congregate care setting, such as a prison or long term care facility.”
As for the more widespread community-level testing, the National Guard will assist in setting things up. But Knapp says the drive-up sites already in place make their jobs a bit easier.
“I know that in the Brown County area, there are drive-up test capabilities in the area. Some healthcare providers already have that capability there. We have the ability to either augment them or set up new centers,” Knapp says, “Setting up an actual community-based testing site, there would be certain parameters advertised – and the people meeting those parameters would be able to show up at that test site and get tested.”
Brown County also has two isolation centers that were set up last month in preparation for a potential surge in cases, which has begun to hit the area.
For anyone concerned about martial law or any higher-level enforcement with the National Guard in town, there is no reason to worry.
“The National Guard is supporting DHS in the state effort strictly in specimen collection, testing, and follow-up calls. We do not play any other role in any other type of law enforcement action as it would apply to the testing,” Knapp says.
