CHARLESTON, W.Va. –
This week, the West Virginia National Guard (WVNG) surpassed day 119 of supporting the state’s COVID-19 response. Currently, 424 members of the WVNG are on duty and we have completed 1,779 missions to date.
This weekend, Task Force CRE and Task Force Medical will assist at multiple COVID-19 testing lanes in Marshall, Wayne, Preston, Monongalia and Upshur Counties. To date, these teams have conducted 162 COVID-19 lane support missions testing 17,174 individuals and conducting 4,079 tests as a part of their rapid response mission. This team also completed a round of testing at the State Police Academy and the Wyngate Senior Living Community.
The Guard’s efforts to build up our in-state supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) has been a focus for our team. As Maj. Gen. James Hoyer outlined in Friday’s press briefing, Governor Jim Justice tasked the Guard at the beginning of our response to procure and use innovation to assist the state in our PPE needs.
While there has been an overall demand increase of approximately 5% from the hospitals and long term care facilities, demand for up to 180 days can be met with what has been procured. Increased emphasis will be placed on higher demand items such as N-95 respirators and gloves in the coming weeks to ensure adequate supplies on hand for any surge capacity.
In addition to procuring supplies, the task force dedicated to procurement and delivery of PPE distributed oximeters to various regions in the state this week. Since the start of response efforts, Task Force Sustainment has delivered 6,347,399 pieces of PPE to all 55 counties in the State of West Virginia.
Over the past five days, West Virginia Guardsmen and women maintained the missions supporting area food banks and completed 220 box meals for the Huntington Mobile Food Bank. To date, the Guard has helped to deliver or package 343,381 meals for food insecure West Virginians. In addition, personnel augmenting DHHR’s regional epidemiology teams have conducted 15,770 voluntary COVID-19 mapping engagements.
As of this release, the WVNG has provided the following for the citizens of West Virginia:
• Packaged and delivered 343,381 meals
• Received and shipped 6,347,399 pieces of PPE to all 55 counties
• Sanitized 615 first responder vehicles
• Performed 21,253 COVID-19 tests at various testing lanes or support missions
• Trained 834 businesses, 102 long term care facilities or medical practices and 4,807 civilians on COVID-19 prevention best practices
• Produced 151,213 pieces of PPE including isolation gowns and sewn face coverings
B-roll footage of current and ongoing WVNG missions are available at: www.dvidshub.net/units/wv-ang