CHARLESTON, W.Va. –
This week, the West Virginia National Guard (WVNG) surpassed day 203 of supporting the state’s COVID-19 response. Currently, 385 members of the WVNG are on duty and we have completed 2,015 missions to date.
Throughout the month of September, the WVNG completed 170 missions that encompassed assisting in conducting more than 10,000 COVID-19 tests in the state; the delivery of PPE to both K-12 and higher education facilities for all 55 counties; continued sanitization missions and training at long term care facilities; the delivery of items of critical personal protective equipment; and emplaced 19 of 20 WiFi locations throughout the state in order to facilitate distance learning for school children. In addition, the WVNG conducted 4,894 voluntary COVID-19 mappings during the month of September.
Throughout the week, the Guard stood up additional testing teams at the direction of Governor Jim Justice, in order to increase testing capacity. As of today, the Guard has 21 teams available for COVID-19 testing, which will increase capacity by 175%.
As a part of that effort this week, Task Force CRE and Task Force Medical provided assistance with COVID-19 testing lanes in Kanawha and Marion Counties and will continue support this weekend in Kanawha, Taylor, Harrison and Upshur Counties.
In addition to testing, TF CRE completed 48 disinfection missions during the month of September, focusing on schools, government and city facilities and long-term care facilities and nursing homes.
As of this release, the WVNG has provided the following for the citizens of West Virginia:
- Distributed 6,473,603 pieces of PPE to all 55 counties
- Sanitized 617 first responder vehicles
- Performed 42,807 COVID-19 tests at various testing lanes or support missions
- Trained 834 businesses, 111 long term care facilities or medical practices and 4,838 civilians on COVID-19 prevention best practices
- Produced 203,159 pieces of PPE
B-roll footage of current and ongoing WVNG missions are available at: www.dvidshub.net/unit/wv-ang