CHARLESTON, W.Va. –
During today’s press conference, Governor Jim Justice announced the increase of COVID-19 testing opportunities for minorities and vulnerable populations in high-density populated areas starting this weekend in Raleigh, Mercer, Jefferson and Berkeley Counties.
“At the direction of the Governor and in coordination with the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) and the County Health Departments, the West Virginia National Guard (WVNG) will be supporting testing lanes over the next few weeks by providing approximately 60 personnel from Task Force CRE and Task Force Medical as force multipliers for this initiative,” said Maj. Gen. James Hoyer, Adjutant General of the WVNG. “In addition to participating in testing, we have a Guard member serving on the COVID-19 Advisory Commission on African American Disparities to assist in strategy development for this exceptionally important state-wide endeavor.”
Since beginning operations in support of the state’s COVID-19 response 62 days ago, the WVNG has completed 1,026 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, 697 members of the WVNG are on duty serving the citizens of the State of West Virginia.
Beginning tomorrow 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.
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 completed three PPE trainings today and to date has trained 720 businesses, 3,921 personnel and 95 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 3,030 tests as a part of their overall response mission.
In the last 24 hours, West Virginia Guardsmen and women assisted packing 1,084 box meals at the Mountaineer Food Bank and 191 family meal boxes at the Facing Hunger Food Bank and 1,330 box meals in Clarksburg.
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 367 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 152 voluntary COVID-19 mapping engagements which resulted in six expedited transfers to the state lab. To date, the state’s seven regional epidemiology teams have conducted more than 6,707 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.