State preparing COVID-19 care facility in Milledgeville, Gov. Kemp says

A COVID-19 alternate care facility is being prepared in Milledgeville for non-critical patients, according to Gov. Brian Kemp.

Kemp announced that the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency is preparing the 80-bed facility at the National Guard Youth Challenge Academy. The facility will be staged by medical personnel from PAE Staffing, which Georgia has used to staff a similar alternate care facility at the Georgia World Congress Center.

“The preparation of this smaller facility allows us to provide medical care to low-acuity patients at a location that is more centrally located for many medical facilities throughout Georgia,” Kemp said in a release. “We continue monitoring the virus data to enable us to ‘right size’ the resources and response so we can ensure every COVID-19 patient gets the care they need.”

The National Guard Youth Challenge Academy facility is owned by the Georgia Department of Defense. Two units will be repurposed as hospital rooms. It will undergo repainting and sanitization. Each room will have hospital beds, privacy walls and medical supplies that will be moved from the Georgia World Congress Center.

The equipment from the Georgia World Congress Center that isn’t moved to the new facility will be warehoused in Forsyth at the Georgia Public Safety Training Center.

“Preparing this facility provides an additional safety net by ensuring adequate bed space for medical facilities and our nursing homes,” GEMA/HS Director Homer Bryson said in a release. “We want to utilize the resources that the state has already brought on line to address the medical needs of Georgia.”