SHEBOYGAN, Wis. — The Wisconsin National Guard dispatched a team April 5 to a senior living facility in Sheboygan to establish a mobile testing site and perform COVID-19 specimen collection. Approximately 30 Citizen Soldiers and Airmen arrived early Sunday morning at the Sunny Ridge Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, where they tested facility staff and residents in support of the Wisconsin Department of Health Services and the Sheboygan County Division of Public Health. The troops, among the approximately 350 mobilized to state active duty in March after Gov. Tony Evers declared a public health emergency March 12, began training to establish mobile testing sites for specimen collection over the past two weeks. The group consists of Soldiers and Airmen from the Wisconsin Army National Guard’s Whitewater-based 457th Chemical Company, the Waukesha-based 135th Medical Company, and the Wisconsin Air National Guard’s 115th Fighter Wing in Madison. The Wisconsin National Guard established drive-thru specimen collection for facility staff before moving inside to collect samples from residents in support of the Sheboygan County Division of Public Health. Local health officials identified an outbreak at the facility over the course of the past week, prompting a coordinated response from the local to the state level. “Testing like this is prioritized from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services and really what we’re trying to do is stop further spread of outbreaks of CVOID-19 within this facility,” Libby Jacobs, with the Sheboygan County Department of Health and Human Services, said. “Having testing of both staff and residents will help us quantify and reduce further spread of COVID-19 in both the staff, residents, and within the community.”
