Oregon National Guard arrives to help at Asante

The Oregon National Guard has arrived at Asante, where 150 soldiers will be assigned nonclinical support functions in Jackson and Josephine counties. The soldiers will go through Asante orientation over the weekend and begin their duties on Monday.

They’ll be fairly evenly split between our facilities in Jackson and Josephine counties, serving in areas such as Nutrition Services, Materials Management, Environmental Services, Security and the COVID hotline. They are also needed at Asante’s drive-thru test COVID-19 testing sites, which are seeing record volumes. The Medford location is conducting an average of 600 tests a day and the Grants Pass site, 280 a day. Wait times can be up to two hours, and recent conflicts have required staff to call security.

Many of the soldiers come from Southern Oregon, where they hold other local jobs when not deployed. The guard’s Asante deployment runs through September, but could be extended to the end of the year if the surge continues. Asante also asked the state for clinical personnel support and is awaiting a decision on that request.