WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th October, 2020) The US State of Wisconsin will open a field hospital to treat COVID-19 patients due to a record uptick in hospitalizations, Governor Tony Evers said in a release on Wednesday.
"Due to increased COVID-19 hospitalizations and at the request of hospital systems, Gov. Tony Evers announced today the Alternate Care Facility (ACF) at Wisconsin State Fair Park will begin accepting COVID-19 patients within the next week," the release said.
The announcement comes as the Wisconsin health systems experience rising pressure to manage record surges in COVID-19 patient hospitalizations, the release said.
"As of yesterday, there were 853 COVID-19 hospitalizations, an increase of 71 over the day before," the release added.
Wisconsin is divided into seven healthcare emergency readiness coalition (HERC) regions that how public health, healthcare institutions and first responder agencies respond to health emergencies and catastrophic events.
"As of today, 7 HERC regions (Fox Valley Area, North Central, Northeast, Northwest, South Central, Southeast, Western) exhibit 'High' or 'Very High' activity," the release said, adding that hospitals across the state are concurrently facing critical staffing shortages.
The new field facility is not a hospital in the traditional sense and will not accept walk-in patients, but will coordinate with healthcare systems admitting patients who still need care but are not seriously ill in need of hospital-level care, the release explained.
"It will serve as a transitional facility to offer oxygen and medical care for COVID-19 patients who still need support in their recovery. 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," the release said.
