MENASHA – Hundreds of cars packed on a loose COVID-19 check that opened Wednesday on the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Fox Cities campus in Menasha.
The site had budgeted 500 tests, which are conducted through members of the Wisconsin National Guard and sent to Exact Sciences in Madison for processing.
But on Wednesday morning, Menasha’s director of public health, Nancy McKenney, said she ordered 250 more tests, which would arrive later in the day, to accommodate the crowd. If all 750 tests are used before 6 p.m. close, close early, McKenney said.
“We needed this site,” McKenney said, describing the growing number of coronavirus instances in all 3 counties.
At one point in the morning, cars overturned near Midway Road while waiting for driving tests. Nick Oleszak, a leading data officer at the Menasha Police Department, estimated that 400 to 500 cars were queuing when officers showed up to direct traffic.
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Local fitness has been running at a loose control site for some time, McKenney said, after the completion of Fox Valley Technical College’s last site in May and control restrictions began to appear at domain hospitals. They arrived at the state National Guard a week ago and got confirmation from the site on Friday.
Members of the guard will be at the Sunnyview Expo Center in Oshkosh on Fridays and Saturdays from nine a.m. to five p.m. to do more tests The initial capacity for those days will also be five00 tests.
Depending on the availability of the National Guard, McKenney said he would like to organize more loose test sites in the near future.
Anyone with symptoms such as fever, cough, shortness of breath, sore throat, runny nose, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headache, chills, muscle aches or loss of taste and smell is encouraged to come up for a test. Registration can be done in register.covidconnect.wi.gov.
The effects of the test will be sent by phone or email within 3 to seven business days; those who have a negative check will be touched through a member of the Guard and those who test positive through their local fitness department. While waiting for the effects, McKenney said, other people avoid contact with other people.
Contact Madeline Heim at 920-996-7266 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter on @madeline_heim.