Plans are now in place for turning one Emporia hotel into temporary housing for coronavirus patients.
The Kansas Division of Emergency Management has confirmed a contract has been signed for Super 8 to be used for that purpose. A list of details are not currently available, including what happens to prior hotel guests, how many patients will be staying at the hotel, whether the patients will be quarantined or isolated and limits on personal interactions between the patients.
The Kansas Department for Children and Families will manage the shelter.
Meanwhile, the Kansas National Guard has roughly 40 members in Emporia, working in support roles for two significant projects as related to coronavirus.
Members of the Guard are helping the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and Lyon County Public Health on mobile testing with several hot spots announced at production facilities and a church locally. It’s also gearing up to help with temporary housing of certain patients, as Army National Guard Command Sgt. Major Steve Harmon explained on KVOE’s 8:05 am newscast Thursday:
Rumors have abounded about the Guard’s role in battling COVID-19, with ongoing talk of a military or law enforcement role as the pandemic has continued. Both Harmon and 190th Air Refueling Wing Command Chief Sherry Willard say that’s not the case.
The Guard is helping with the mobile tests after Lyon County Public Health announced it had received three rapid-response Abbott Laboratories testing machines and also started updating the community about the clusters that have developed. Final plans for temporary housing have not been announced, but the tentative plan is to quarantine exposed individuals, isolate people with lab-confirmed results that do not need hospitalization or isolate presumed positive patients.
