ROGERS, Ark. — On Monday (April 13) the NWA COVID-19 task force handed out personal protective equipment (PPE) that had been donated to departments across the area.
The Rogers Fire Department was one of around a dozen departments that received PPE today, thanks to Sheepdog Impact Assistance that has been holding a donation drive for the last two weeks.
“It’s greatly important. You know everybody is short on personal protective equipment, so having this equipment provided to us helps us out quite a bit,” Rogers EMS Captain Nick Mason said.
Mason says their dispatchers do a great job of screening callers for COVID-19 symptoms, so they are able to put on more PPE before arriving at the scene. He says COVID-19 has changed their response techniques.
“Instead of sending a full crew in, we may just send in one or two guys in to investigate to see if they have the signs and symptoms of that are associated with COVID-19," Mason said. "If they do, we try to isolate and try to reduce the amount of personnel that we send into a call."
Director of Emergency Management for Benton County, Michael Waddle says this donation from Sheep Dog is greatly appreciated. He says so far, they have received three deliveries of PPE from the strategic national stockpile.
“Each of those deliveries have been a little light as far as addressing PPE needs across the county, so these public donations really augment the items we did receive from that national stockpile and again, greatly appreciated,” Waddle said.
Sheep Dog Impact Assistance will continue holding a PPE donation drive until there is no longer a need in our area. The PPE they collected came from nail salons, dental offices and other places that had extra gloves, masks, gowns and cleaning supplies.