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NEWS | May 16, 2020

W.Va. Guard assists in high-density population testing in four W.Va. counties

By Maj. Holli Nelson West Virginia National Guard Public Affairs

At the direction of Governor Jim Justice and as a part of the State of West Virginia’s response to COVID-19 in densely populated areas, the West Virginia National Guard assisted with testing in Berkeley, Jefferson, Mercer and Raleigh Counties yesterday, testing 1,174 citizens.

Testing at these four locations will continue today until 4 p.m. The WVNG’s Task Force CRE and Task Force Medical, which have provided 55 personnel for these testing lanes, will assist with COVID-19 testing next weekend in Cabell, Kanawha, Marion and Monongalia Counties next weekend.

To date, Task Force CRE and Task Force Medical have conducted 1,621 COVID-19 tests for 84 lane support missions and 3,065 tests as a part of their overall response mission.

Since beginning operations in support of the state’s COVID-19 response 64 days ago, the WVNG has completed 1,097 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, 685 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 724 businesses, 3,963 personnel and 97 medical or long-term care facilities.

In the last 24 hours, West Virginia Guardsmen and women assisted packing 800 box meals at the Mountaineer Food Bank and 288 family meal boxes at the Facing Hunger Food Bank. To date, the WVNG has packaged and delivered 235,462 meals to food insecure West Virginians.

Task Force Sustainment, our team dedicated to receiving and moving critical supplies across the state, has delivered PPE to 24 of 55 county emergency managers this week. To date, this team has distributed more than 1,869,091 items through our logistics chain to all 55 counties in West Virginia.

West Virginia Guard personnel assisting in sanitization lanes for first responder and public transport vehicles have sanitized 390 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 254 voluntary COVID-19 mapping engagements. To date, the state’s seven regional epidemiology teams have conducted more than 7,127 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.

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