CHARLESTOWN, W. Va., – This week, the West Virginia National Guard, at the direction of Governor Jim Justice, increased its capabilities to provide COVID-19 testing support around the state by nearly doubling the capacity for testing teams to a total of 15.
Testing teams will support the Governor’s initiative to increase testing throughout West Virginia, especially in counties that have seen an increased spread in community transmission.
Today, the Guard surpassed day 196 of supporting the state’s COVID-19 response. Currently, 353 members of the WVNG are on duty and have completed 1,976 missions to date.
Since the last update, the Guard has worked with the Board of Education to establish a PPE forecast to ensure schools across West Virginia have adequate supply of PPE and have provided distribution to all 55 counties. In addition, with an emphasis on COVID-19 testing, Task Force CRE and Task Force Medical have performed 6,396 tests, bringing the current total to 44,394.
Support to our vulnerable populations continued this week as meals were boxed and delivered at the Huntington Food Bank. Since the start of the pandemic, the WVNG has boxed and delivered 353,839 meals to food insecure West Virginians.
This weekend and into next week, Task Force CRE will continue providing assistance with COVID-19 testing and N95 fit tests in Monongalia, Kanawha, Putnam, Raleigh, Harrison, Wood and Cabell Counties. In addition to testing, Task Force CRE will continue to focus on decontamination missions in areas that have been affected from COVID-19 positive cases.
Installation of WiFi devices at WVNG armories around the state, part of the Governor’s Kids Connect initiative, is nearing completion with 17 of the 20 sites complete as of today. Locations and statuses of the WiFi devices are available at www.wv.ng.mil/covid-19.
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