CHARLESTON, W.Va. –
Today, the West Virginia Air National Guard’s 167th Airlift Wing and 130th Airlift Wing completed nearly 40 flyovers of West Virginia hospitals as a part of Operation American Resolve, which honors frontline COVID-19 healthcare workers and first responders.
The flyovers were a part of a nation-wide salute to those supporting COVID-19 response efforts and served as vital training for both 167th AW and 130th AW pilots and aeromedical evacuation crews. These flights were conducted at no additional cost to taxpayers.
Since beginning operations in support of the state’s COVID-19 response 61 days ago, the WVNG has completed 993 missions through our six lines of effort of operationalizing of the event, stabilizing the population, providing logistical movement of critical supplies, innovation, state surge capacity and capability, and conducting data analysis to combat the virus. Currently, 702 members of the WVNG are on duty serving the citizens of the State of West Virginia.
Beginning Friday in Fairmont, Task Force CRE and Task Force Medical will assist the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) in COVID-19 testing at assisted living facilities, as directed by Governor Jim Justice. Additionally, the Guard is working in conjunction with DHHR and County Health Departments to conduct COVID-19 testing in high-density populated areas this weekend, including Raleigh, Mercer, Jefferson and Berkeley Counties.
Task Force CRE is continuing to provide PPE training for children’s home society facilities and will complete visits to all locations in the state by the end of this week. This team has six PPE trainings scheduled today and to date, has trained 720 businesses, 3,872 personnel and 93 medical or long-term care facilities.
In addition to training, Task Force CRE and Task Force Medical have conducted 447 COVID-19 tests for lane support and 3,001 tests as a part of their overall response mission.
In the last 24 hours, West Virginia Guardsmen and women assisted packing 1,206 box meals at the Mountaineer Food Bank and 326 family meal boxes at the Facing Hunger Food Bank and 3,435 box meals in Clarksburg. Today, 3,900 meals will be delivered to Wood County via refrigerated trailers.
Task Force Sustainment, our team dedicated to receiving and moving critical supplies across the state, will deliver PPE to local emergency managers in Regions 2 and 3.
West Virginia Guard personnel assisting in sanitization lanes for first responder and public transport vehicles have sanitized 357 vehicles in two locations – Huntington and Charleston – which includes ambulances, police vehicles and public transport buses.
West Virginia National Guard medical personnel augmenting DHHR’s regional epidemiology teams were able to support 156 voluntary COVID-19 mapping engagements. To date, the state’s seven regional epidemiology teams have conducted more than 6,555 voluntary COVID-19 mappings.
All current and future missions performed by the WVNG are a part of a coordinated state-level public health preparation and response effort for the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, initiated by Governor Jim Justice, and being led by the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources.
B-roll footage of current and ongoing WVNG missions are available at: www.dvidshub.net/units/wv-ang