Rock County officials want to make sure they’re prepared for the possibility of mass casualties resulting from the COVID-19 outbreak.
Rock County Administrator Josh Smith authorized the purchase of three refrigerated trailers and two CadaverSeal MassPaks, which would be used to process and store bodies if funeral homes and hospitals run out of space.
“I wouldn’t necessarily say that we think we’re going to have to use them,” Smith told the Rock County Board Thursday night. “Fortunately, things have not materialized in that way, and I think people would attribute that to the good work people have done staying home and flattening the curve.”
The trailers were purchased on March 23 and April 9, and they can each store 40 bodies.
The CadaverSeal MassPaks purchased on April 7 give the county the ability to safely vacuum-seal bodies and replace the need for roughly 900 body bags during the current shortage.
The purchases were part of the Rock County Mass Fatality Incident Response Plan, which was first established in 2015. The county’s partners in emergency operations agreed the county would be responsible in case of a large volume of deaths.
The health department is anticipating multiple future peaks of COVID-19 outbreaks in our area, and they wanted to be prepared for the worst case scenarios.
Smith said his staff thought they could end up needing more than just the three trailers based on early projections of the outbreak, but the implementation of social distancing has helped control the risk.
As of Thursday, Rock County has reported four deaths due to COVID-19.
He believes the trailers could be repurposed or resold when they are no longer needed.
Smith also authorized the purchase of 49,000 more N95 masks and 25,000 more gowns, totaling nearly $300,000.
He anticipates distributing much of the personal protective equipment they acquire, and the county can be reimbursed for some of the cost from federal, state and local governments.
