An alternative care facility at the Wisconsin State Fair Park Exposition Center is still not treating any COVID-19 patients four days after opening on Friday, multiple sources have confirmed to "The Dan O'Donnell Show."
The facility, which was built to house patients who could not be treated at overcrowded hospitals, has apparently been rendered useless after the expected crush of Coronavirus patients never arrived.
"They’ve hired 400 so far to staff the facility," a worker told "The Dan O'Donnell Show" last week. "There are 530 beds set up. They already have everything they need to set up an additional 200-plus more beds. They said they’ve been told to expect the next peak will be late fall/early winter, but it hasn’t been decided yet whether or not everything will stay set up."
The Wisconsin Department of Administration announced earlier this month that it needed a mix of paid and volunteer workers to staff the facility, which is being described as an "oxygen treatment center" and not a hospital. Sources indicated that the facility is not equipped to handle patients who are in critical or serious condition and can only house the most stable, ambulatory patients.
"We can't take patients with mental health issues, complicated medical profiles, uncontrolled Diabetes, or dementia/Alzheimer’s. They must be ambulatory or able to get up with only one person assisting them," the worker said. "Essentially we will be only accepting adults who are well on their way to recovery but just need to get weaned off of oxygen."
As of Monday evening, the facility had not accepted a single patient in any condition. Governor Evers signed an executive order opening it on Thursday but has not yet said when or if patients would be transferred there for treatment.