Shawano, Menominee counties equipped for COVID for now

SHAWANO — Shawano and Menominee counties are adequately supplied currently for dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, according to local officials, but being ready for a surge in COVID-19 cases here should that happen may be more of a challenge.

Shawano County Emergency Management recently picked up three shipments of personal protective equipment (PPE) from sites set up in Antigo and Wausau by Wisconsin Emergency Management.

“In Antigo, the first shipment was designated for the election and the election workers,” Emergency Management Director Jim Davel said, “and the second shipment was designated for first responders.”

The shipment included 295 masks.

“That was it,” Davel said. “We put in requests for thousands of pieces of PPE, because you look down the road and you don’t really know when this thing is going to end.”

Davel said the issue is that 72 counties in the state and some of the larger municipalities are all requesting PPE, and the state is having to prioritize distribution.

The county was able to obtain more PPE with a third pick-up at the emergency management site in Wausau.

“We did get some more masks, some medical cover-alls, some gloves and those types of things,” Davel said. “With the equipment we did get, we were able to outfit the fire departments across the county, EMS, the hospital, long-term and assisted living and got shipments from the strategic national stockpile.”

He said the county has also put in a purchase order for an additional $7,000 worth of PPE.

“Right now, overall I would say we’re in good shape,” Davel said. “Could we be better? Sure. And we work every day to try to make that better.”

Davel noted that EMS services in the county require PPE even when dealing with non-coronavirus incidents.

“Our EMS services right now are extremely busy and it’s nothing to do with COVID,” he said. “There’s a lot of sick people out there that have absolutely nothing to do with COVID. Falls, accidents, things like that are keeping our services very busy. It’s also a strain on the PPE because in a lot of cases you don’t know what the issue is, but they have to go out with full kit. So it’s a big issue right now.”

Davel said he has been working with state emergency management on what plans should be in place in the event of a surge in cases, including the possibility of isolation centers.

“That is a daily discussion with the state,” he said.

“COVID affects the health care system tremendously,” Davel said, “and people run the health care system. Facilities are not really an issue. It’s the people to run those facilities. When you have every county that’s going through the same thing, it’s very difficult to get a backfill for surging capacity.”

Davel said that’s a big concern for the state, especially in rural communities.

“The facilities and the personnel to support those are much more difficult to get in a rural community,” he said.

Davel said the county will likely get some help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“We’ll have to go back and look and see what costs we have associated with this,” he said.

That’s something the county has been tracking, according to Administrative Coordinator Brent Miller.

Davel said he felt FEMA is doing a good job in terms of resources, “given the fact that every state in the nation is asking basically for the exact same things.”

As of Friday, there were five confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Shawano County.

None of those cases has required hospitalization, according to Shawano-Menominee Counties Public Health Director Vicki Dantoin.

At present, there is no shortage of bed space, according to officials, and they are hoping that won’t change.

“We don’t want to exceed the bed space at the hospital,” Davel said. “That’s why the Safer-at-Home thing is so important. We can’t exceed the capacity of what the hospital can do.”

Health officials have not released any information about the persons confirmed to be infected with the coronavirus or any information on where in the two counties those confirmed cases were located.

That is partly to ensure their privacy, Dantoin said, but also to keep people elsewhere in the counties from getting complacent.

“It gives a false sense of security if someone is saying, ‘Oh, it’s only this part of Shawano County. We’re safe.’ That’s not necessarily the case,” Dantoin said. “We want all people to be concerned and be thinking about this.”

The health department is not involved with the testing of suspected coronavirus cases, but is notified of the testing numbers and any confirmed cases.

“Once we get notification, we ensure that the person is informed of their results,” Dantoin said. “After that, we proceed to call them and discuss how they’re doing, discuss what they need to do to stay home, what kind of resources they might need.”

Health department staff then launches into an investigation of their possible contacts over the past 14 days.

“They ask where they’ve been during the times they could have potentially been infectious. They look at the people that are probably their closest contacts, if they’ve been within six feet of anybody without personal protective equipment,” Dantoin said. “We make a running list and then eventually all those people are notified.”

Dantoin said those contacts aren’t told who the person is that might have exposed them.

“We tell them, ‘you’ve been identified as a contact to someone who tested positive and we want you to stay in quarantine for 14 days,’” she said.

“Household members are also investigated, so anybody living in the household is basically kept in the household after a positive case has been identified,” Dantoin said.

“You don’t necessarily need to have a positive test result to do follow-up,” she said. “There are times when we do follow up anyway. Even before we had positive cases, we were already putting people into quarantine if they were being tested or suspected for the virus.”

Dantoin said the health department has been in contact with more than 200 people so far.

“We have four staff that’s been focusing on that,” she said. “We have an additional person, part-time, trained to assist and be reinforcement for that. It is a lot of work. it’s difficult, too, having discussions with people, because people sometimes are not happy about it. It can be stressful for them as well.”

Davel said there is additional strain under these circumstances, unlike what might be seen in the event of a tornado or a flood.

“Typically when you have a severe weather event, the duration is not as long,” he said. “This, we really don’t know when it’s going to end. It’s a factor in supplies. It’s a factor in dealing with your people. It wears on your folks. And because of all the social distancing, we have to find new and inventive ways to work. We do a lot more from our phones. We do a lot more from the computer. You’ve got to look at different venues to execute your job.”

The governor’s Safer-at-Home order is currently set to expire April 24, but that could change depending on conditions.

Some events that had been planned for this summer, including Sun Drop Dayz and Pulaski Polka Days, have already been canceled.

Dantoin said she has fielded a lot of calls from people asking what they will be able to do.

“We’re encouraging people not to gather,” she said. “That’s where the illness spreads. That’s what we don’t want to see right now. We don’t want to see those gatherings.”

Miller said he has personally seen people practicing social distancing.

“I’m seeing a lot of people trying to go above and beyond,” he said. “People are trying to maintain their social distancing, wearing masks, rubber gloves. Businesses are wiping down and doing everything that they can. There are a lot of people being helpful out there.”

Miller said the county appreciates their cooperation.

“It’s a team effort,” he said. “And the team covers the entire United States right now.”

tryan@newmedia-wi.com