PADUCAH (WSIL)---Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear has deployed 300 National Guard members to help hospitals with the COVID surge.
Thirty members of the National Guard are currently stationed at Mercy Health Lourdes Hospital in Paducah.
Mercy Health currently has an entire floor dedicated to COVID patients, which is full almost every day, as well as a COVID critical care unit, who's 12 beds have been virtually full for the last 6 weeks.
That's not including their ICU, which staff tried to keep COVID free, but couldn't because of the number of COVID cases coming through.
The national guard helps with cleaning duties for non COVID areas of the hospital and stocking PPE, so staff can focus on caring for COVID patients without becoming overwhelmed.
"They're non clinical folks. The National Guard are obviously not nurses and doctors. But there are a lot of things that we need to have done around here to support them, and the National Guard provides us with a lot of extra hands to do that, and we're just super appreciative that they're here," said Mercy Health's Chief Operating Officer Rick Goins.
The National Guard's orders keep them at hospitals for about a month, but Goins hopes they can stay longer if COVID numbers don't start decreasing.
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