CHARLESTON, W.Va. –
During today’s press briefing, Maj. Gen. James Hoyer, Adjutant General of the West Virginia National Guard (WVNG) outlined some of the unique ways the Guard is supporting the ongoing COVID-19 response to the State of West Virginia.
The Joint Communications Directorate (J-6) and the Army Interagency Training and Education Center (AITEC) Critical Infrastructure Protection Battalion has been working in conjunction with the West Virginia Office of Technology to conduct cyber health assessments of the state lab’s systems. During this pandemic, there has been an unprecedented amount of cyber threats, which have specifically targeted government agencies and laboratories. These combined, practice efforts are helping to verify the privacy of personal and confidential information being exchanged during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This weekend, Task Force CRE and Task Force Medical will once again assist with COVID-19 testing lanes in Berkeley, Jefferson, Kanawha, Mineral and Morgan Counties. To date, Task Force CRE and Task Force Medical have conducted 96 COVID-19 lane support missions testing 5,925 individuals and 3,430 tests as a part of their rapid response mission.
Since beginning operations in support of the state’s COVID-19 response 74 days ago, the WVNG has completed 1,178 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, 677 members of the WVNG are on duty serving the citizens of the State of West Virginia.
Task Force CRE is continuing to provide PPE training for various businesses, state agencies and first responders. To date, this team has trained 745 businesses, 4,282 personnel and 101 medical or long-term care facilities.
In the last 24 hours, West Virginia Guardsmen and women conducted inventory and sanitization of the food bank sites. Today, members of the Guard will deliver 4,200 meals to Lincoln, Mason, Wood, Webster and Tyler counties via refrigerated trailers.
Task Force Sustainment, our team dedicated to receiving and moving critical supplies across the state, is receiving and decontaminating PPE to prepare these items for delivery.
West Virginia Guard personnel assisting in sanitization lanes for first responder and public transport vehicles have sanitized 454 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 have conducted more than 8,008 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