Wisconsin National Guard Continues to Assist With Coronavirus Specimen Collection
Tuesday, July 28th, 2020 -- 9:14 AM
-Wisconsin National Guard specimen collection teams’ cumulative total gathered for COVID-19 testing topped 288,000 as teams continue to operate across Wisconsin supporting local health departments and the Wisconsin Department of Health Services with COVID-19 testing efforts.Mobile specimen collection teams from the Wisconsin National Guard will continue operations across Wisconsin this week. They are supporting local health departments and the Wisconsin Department of Health Services effort to increase the state’s COVID-19 testing capacity. The teams, which are tailorable to meet the needs of a specific facility, are dispatched from a larger task force of several hundred Citizen Soldiers and Airmen. They have been establishing mobile testing sites since early April at locations ranging from correctional facilities, health clinics and institutional facilities, to private businesses, senior-living facilities, and community-based testing sites.
After collecting the specimens at each site, the test kits are sent to a lab for analysis, and individual citizens receive their results via a phone call from their local health department or a state call center within three-to-seven days following the test. For Clark County, one team gathered nearly 150 specimens May 13 at a community-based testing site at Thorp High School in Thorp. One team collected nearly 150 specimens May 20 at a long-term care facility in Colby.
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