Milwaukee County officials eye State Fair Park for potential COVID-19 patient overflow

Milwaukee County officials want to place an alternative care facility at the Wisconsin State Fair Park to handle a potential overflow if there’s a surge of COVID-19 patients.

“We’re going to plan for the worst, but hope for the best,” West Allis Mayor Dan Devine told reporters Thursday.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said they’re asking the state to request that the Army Corps of Engineers develop the facility. They’re acting quickly because they think there’s going to be demand for the work in other parts of the country as COVID-19 spreads, he said.

Chicago and Detroit have similar facilities. The location won’t treat patients who need ventilators, but it would be for patients who need a higher level of care and can’t be treated at home, Barrett said.

“We are ready and we are looking to make sure we are operational as quickly as possible to provide services that we hope are never needed,” said John Yingling, chair of the park’s board of directors.

Dr. Ben Weston, director of medical services for the Milwaukee County Office of Emergency Management, said that the Army Corps of Engineers would be outfitting an existing structure for medical care, rather than building a new facility.

Weston said the overall rate of confirmed cases compared to the population of the county is around 100 confirmed cases per 100,000.

But there are portions of the county, like the central part and north side of the city of Milwaukee, that are closer to 250 confirmed cases per 100,000. That number is similar to where cities like New York City were less than a week ago.

He said they’ve been working with health systems to understand bed and resource capacity and their ability to scale.

In places with COVID-19 surges, even “the largest and most efficient hospital systems at times required further support outside of their four walls,” he said.

“The state fairgrounds provide an optimal location for this space considering the ease of access, abundant parking, central location to a variety of resources,” he said.

Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele said the plan is out of “an abundance of caution.” He said they have to be prepared for a worst case scenario and work to avoid it.

“I’ll be the happiest guy in the county if we get a build out and a building that we don’t have to use,” he said. “But we’re going to be darn sure that we’re ready.”

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