Gov. Evers Announces New UV Decontamination Site in Sawyer County
Site is a Product of an Impressive Collaborative Effort Between a Local Host and State Support
MADISON — Gov. Tony Evers today announced that Sawyer County will soon become the latest location in Wisconsin to successfully implement a UV Decontamination System.
“It’s no secret that the COVID-19 public health emergency has strained supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE) across our state and country, leading to shortages of critical supplies including N95 respirator masks,” said Gov. Evers. “Once this system is up and running, it will allow one of the more remote areas of the Badger State to decontaminate at least 45,000 N95 respirators per month, ensuring that our frontline healthcare workers and first responders using PPE in Northwest Wisconsin can continue to do so safely.”
Healthcare workers and first responders using PPE in Northwest Wisconsin, as well as the rest of the state, are being asked to save their used N95 masks for decontamination.
“Having a local decontamination site will provide a great benefit to our Northern rural region residents of Northwest Wisconsin,” Sawyer County Emergency Manager Patricia Sanchez said. “We are sure to see a surge in the need for N95 masks in the next few weeks, therefore it will be extremely important to be able to reuse as much as we can.”
The new Sawyer County site, which will support a large swath of Northwest Wisconsin, is thanks to an impressive combination of local host willing to take the necessary steps to house this unit, local volunteers, and state support as far as training and resources in order to bring it online.
The Northwest region of Wisconsin was an area targeted by the Wisconsin State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC) as a location with a pressing need for this service. Currently, the region has only a limited supply of PPE.
People in at least 11 counties, Sawyer, Bayfield, Ashland, Iron, Price, Rusk, Barron, Polk, Burnett, Washburn, and Douglas, will be able to utilize the site. At least five area tribes, including the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, and the St. Croix Band of Chippewa Indians, will also be able to utilize the site.
On Monday and Tuesday of this week, industrial hygienists from the Wisconsin State Lab of Hygiene (WSLH) spent time in Sawyer County building the unit and training local staff to be able to run and utilize it. At this point at least 15 volunteers have been trained and will be able to run it, using the WSLH’s best practices.
The device, which is housed in Sawyer County, utilizes the principles of mask decontamination set in place by Nebraska Medicine and the University of Nebraska Medical Center. To decontaminate an item, it is hung on a line and exposed to UV light. Too much light and the mask could be destroyed, while too little and it would not be decontaminated.
“We are pretty excited about the possibilities of implementing the methods pioneered by Nebraska Medicine, locally in our state,” said George Gruetzmacher, who serves an Industrial Hygiene Consultant-Engineer for WSLH. “For places like Sawyer County, we are able to provide the equipment and training to a local site, but the sites themselves need to put together the infrastructure in a comfortable and convenient way. Sawyer County has done an excellent job with doing everything needed to get a decontamination site up and running.”
Sawyer County will be conducting final tests of the unit next week, and plan to start using it soon after.
Sawyer County’s UV decontamination site is just one of many already in place in much of Wisconsin, and with capacity to service N95 masks and other PPE. These efforts are highlighted by facilities already operational in Brown, Dane, and Kenosha counties.
In addition, the UV decontamination sites, this week Wisconsin received a delivery of 230,000 N95 respirator masks from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), providing a needed boost to efforts to obtain PPE for distribution in the state. FEMA has also informed the state that it will be receiving technology in the form of a Battelle CCDS Critical Care Decontamination System™ to help decontaminate N95 masks, which will help extend the life of these important supplies.
FEMA expects the Battelle Corporation to ship its system to Wisconsin in the early part of May, with the system likely to be ready for use later in the month. Once ready to go, the system will be able to decontaminate tens of thousands of N95 masks daily.
NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.
More about the Coronavirus Pandemic
- Governors Tony Evers, JB Pritzker, Tim Walz, and Gretchen Whitmer Issue a Joint Statement Concerning Reports that Donald Trump Gave Russian Dictator Putin American COVID-19 Supplies - Gov. Tony Evers - Oct 11th, 2024
- MHD Release: Milwaukee Health Department Launches COVID-19 Wastewater Testing Dashboard - City of Milwaukee Health Department - Jan 23rd, 2024
- Milwaukee County Announces New Policies Related to COVID-19 Pandemic - County Executive David Crowley - May 9th, 2023
- DHS Details End of Emergency COVID-19 Response - Wisconsin Department of Health Services - Apr 26th, 2023
- Milwaukee Health Department Announces Upcoming Changes to COVID-19 Services - City of Milwaukee Health Department - Mar 17th, 2023
- Fitzgerald Applauds Passage of COVID-19 Origin Act - U.S. Rep. Scott Fitzgerald - Mar 10th, 2023
- DHS Expands Free COVID-19 Testing Program - Wisconsin Department of Health Services - Feb 10th, 2023
- MKE County: COVID-19 Hospitalizations Rising - Graham Kilmer - Jan 16th, 2023
- Not Enough Getting Bivalent Booster Shots, State Health Officials Warn - Gaby Vinick - Dec 26th, 2022
- Nearly All Wisconsinites Age 6 Months and Older Now Eligible for Updated COVID-19 Vaccine - Wisconsin Department of Health Services - Dec 15th, 2022
Read more about Coronavirus Pandemic here
Recent Press Releases by Gov. Tony Evers
Gov. Evers, Eli Lilly and Company Celebrate $3 Billion Expansion of Manufacturing Facility in Wisconsin
Dec 5th, 2024 by Gov. Tony EversAccording to the company, the investment will benefit millions of patients worldwide, create 2,000 construction jobs, and add 750 highly skilled jobs to Southeastern Wisconsin