CHARLESTON, W.Va. –
The West Virginia National Guard (WVNG) has been supporting the state’s COVID-19 response for 91 days through our six lines of effort including 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, 543 members of the WVNG are on duty and we have completed 1,499 missions to date.
This week, members of the West Virginia Guard returned to normal duty as the 167th Airlift Wing in Martinsburg held its first unit training assembly since the beginning of the pandemic. The 167th Airlift Wing will also be taking part in voluntary COVID-19 testing in order to provide a biopsy of the population in a more densely populated area and to ensure the health of our force is maintained.
Starting today, Task Force CRE and Task Force Medical will assist at multiple COVID-19 testing lanes in Greenbrier, Hancock, Logan, Kanawha, Wood and Berkeley Counties. To date, these teams have conducted 114 COVID-19 lane support missions testing 10,860 individuals and 4,007 tests as a part of their rapid response mission.
Task Force CRE is continuing to provide PPE training for various businesses, state agencies and first responders. To date, this team has trained 834 businesses, 4,769 personnel and 102 medical or long-term care facilities.
Yesterday, senior leaders from the WVNG hosted a virtual teleconference (VTC) with our Peruvian military partners through the National Guard Bureau’s State Partnership Program to share best practices related to COVID-19 response. For more nearly 30 years, we have been working with our Latin American partners in mutually beneficial trainings and subject matter expert exchanges and were able to assist in addressing any needs related to the ongoing pandemic through the VTC.
Over the past five days, West Virginia Guardsmen and women maintained the missions at the Clarksburg and Huntington Food Banks preparing 648 boxes in Huntington and 4,710 boxes delivered in Clarksburg. In addition, they also supported a mobile food bank mission to Mason County, assisting in providing meals to nearly 200 families. To date, the Guard has helped to deliver or package more than 341,000 meals for food insecure West Virginians.
Task Force Sustainment, the team dedicated to receiving and moving critical supplies, delivered cloth facemasks to K-12 and college locations across the state this week. This team has made deliveries to 50 of the 55 counties in West Virginia in the last five days.
West Virginia Guard personnel assisting in sanitization lanes for first responder and public transport vehicles have sanitized 580 vehicles in two locations – Huntington and Charleston – which includes ambulances, police vehicles and public transport buses.
Our medical personnel augmenting DHHR’s regional epidemiology teams continued inputting data into the state disease surveillance system and conducting COVID-19 mapping this week. To date, the state’s seven regional epidemiology teams have completed more than 10,722 voluntary COVID-19 mappings and 265 expedited specimen deliveries to the state lab.
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.