Brown County now has four fog machines that can sanitize emergency vehicles used during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Commissioner Diana Biddle announced the new addition to the county’s pandemic fighting inventory at the April 13 Brown County Council meeting. The Brown County Community Foundation funded the purchase, she said.
“It is a fogger that uses … an antiviral-type spray and we now have the ability with these devices, we purchased four of them, we can fog every county police car to try to sanitize it,” Biddle said.
“We are sanitizing all of our ambulances, which they did today, in between runs, and in fact, Columbus Regional hospital was so impressed they are trying to figure out how they can buy them.”
The Stihl machines came from Bear Hardware, which is a Stihl dealer, Public Health Preparedness Coordinator Corey Forst said at the April 15 Brown County Commissioners meeting.
“We had to use it now a couple of times and it seems to be key in our operation and response,” Frost said.
“I’ve already had commissioners calling me from other counties wanting to know how we did it. … It’s great to be on the leading edge,” Biddle said.
At the April 15 meeting, Frost also updated the commissioners on the county’s COVID-19 response, including the establishment of the Emergency Operations Center and Community Organizations Active in Disaster (COAD).
“The nurses have been doing contract testing on multiple cases. We identify one layer out of who has been in touch or exposed to a COVID-positive patient. That’s a very important role and they are doing a tremendous job there,” he said.
Commissioners President Jerry Pittman applauded the county’s response to the pandemic.
“Fourteen confirmed, let’s say that is only half of the cases in Brown County. That is still only 28 cases out of 15,000 people. If you do the math, that’s less than two-tenths of 1 percent of our population have contracted. That is a wonderful statement,” he said.
At press time, the official count was up to 15 confirmed cases.
“I think our people have followed instructions and done the right thing to keep this thing under control.”
