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Partnerships and close working relationships between public agencies, private organizations, and the West Virginia National Guard has helped the State of West Virginia respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Beginning in mid-March when Governor Jim Justice first declared a State of Emergency for West Virginia, the WVNG has aggressively pursued working partnerships across a wide spectrum of public, private and non-profit organizations. This was done so to help tackle many of the most challenging and pressing issues facing the state during the ongoing pandemic in order to facilitate the Governors’ “whole of government” and “whole community” response approach.
“From the very beginning of this process, our goal has been to bring as many capabilities, resources, and great ideas from across the state together to help mitigate and combat the impacts that COVID-19 will have on West Virginia,” stated Maj. Gen. James Hoyer, Adjutant General. “By working together and leveraging both existing and new partnerships, we can take advantage of the creativity and expertise that exists in the state to engage a professional response and to push innovative approaches and solutions to problems that exist or might arise.”
Data Collection & Management
A primary effort when the spread of COVID-19 began to take hold across the nation was assessing the public health infrastructure in West Virginia. This was necessary to identify existing hospital resources including supplies of Personal Protective Equipment, Intensive Care Unit capacities, ventilator stocks, laboratory capabilities, mass casualty and mass fatality plans, and to track and trace the initial spread of the disease.
In partnership with the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources Threat Preparedness Center, the WVNG imbedded personnel in local health departments across the state, creating a Data Collection Unit. This unit’s mandate soon grew to include data collection from not only hospitals, but nursing homes and long-term care facilities, clinics, and quick-care and other medical facilities. The unit gathered, surveyed, and analyzed data, then worked with the West Virginia University John Chambers College of Business and Economics and Data Driven WV to develop the overall state reporting matrix, or “dashboard”, that is used to brief senior government leaders and the public to enable a comprehensive state-wide common operating picture.
In addition to WVDHHR, the WVNG worked closely with the West Virginia Hospital Association, West Virginia Medical Association, West Virginia Bureau of Senior Services, and the West Virginia Office of Technology to ensure accurate data collection.
Supplies and Delivery
Once data was collected for PPE needs, the WVNG worked closely with WVDHHR, the West Virginia Division of Emergency Management, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to stand up a PPE Interagency Coordination Cell to facilitate targeted deliveries of PPE to local health departments and local emergency management agencies to be distributed to medical facilities and first responder agencies in each county.
Operating as a joint command out of the WVNG’s Rock Branch facility in Poca, West Virginia, WVDHHR, WVDEM, and WVNG personnel began daily deliveries of PPE supplies from the National Strategic Stockpile and state stockpiles to all 55 counties in the state.
To date, the WVNG’s Task Force Sustainment has received and distributed more than 13 million individual pieces of PPE to medical professionals and first responders across the Mountain State.
The WVNG also worked in partnership with the West Virginia Purchasing Department and the West Virginia Fusion Intelligence Center to create a fully vetted PPE vendor list that could provide PPE to private entities such as members of the West Virginia Dental Association and the West Virginia Retailers Association.
PPE and Sanitation Innovation
Facing an initial nationwide shortage of PPE and sanitation products, the WVNG worked with partners Mustang Survival, Curis, Toyota, University of Oklahoma, Marshall University, West Virginia University, Shepherd University, Robert C. Byrd Institute, WV Prison Industries, the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and others, to rapidly ramp up design and production of face masks, respirator masks, reusable gowns, face shields, and to secure hand sanitizer for medical professionals, first responders, and public use and consumption.
Identifying a need for first responder vehicles, especially ambulances, to be able to be disinfected after potential COVID-19 exposure, the WVNG worked with partner Yeager Airport to provide the equipment and location for mobile disinfection stations. This partnership led to more than 600 first responder vehicles belonging to the Kanawha County Emergency Ambulance Authority (KCEAA), Jan Care Ambulance, Charleston Police Department, Charleston Fire Department, and other public safety agencies to be sanitized in order to protect both agency employees and the public.
COVID-19 Just-In-Time Training
A critical element in combatting the spread and impacts of COVID-19 involved WVNG personnel training essential workers, businesses, and first responder agencies around the state in proper PPE use, decontamination protocols, sanitization efforts, and disinfecting operations. This included both hands-on training, as well as the production of numerous videos available for free distribution and use.
The WVNG partnered with agencies, businesses, and organizations such as the Cabell Huntington Hospital, Charleston Area Medical Center (CAMC), Kanawha County Health Department, Tri-State Fire Academy, West Virginia Retailers Association, Kroger, Kanawha County Schools, West Virginia Department of Education, West Virginia Bureau of Senior Services, West Virginia Nursing Home Association, and West Virginia Child Care Association to train more than 4,000 employees, volunteers, and staff, providing “just-in-time” training meant to protect both employees and the public.
Communications and Telemedicine Capabilities
Identifying a need to increase telemedicine access in rural areas of the state due to stay at home orders issued by Governor Justice to slow the spread of COVID-19, in partnership with Marshall University, West Virginia University, and Charleston Area Medical Center (CAMC), the WVNG tested multiple mobile communications capabilities including satellite-based and cellular-based platforms in remote areas of the state. These exercises proved that mobile broadband solutions were available to facilitate expanded telemedicine efforts in West Virginia.
Supplemental Manpower
Facing an overwhelming need for public information at the beginning of the crisis, WVNG personnel worked closely with WVDHHR and the West Virginia Poison Center to man toll-free COVID-19 information hotlines answering general medical questions for concerned citizens.
WVNG personnel assisted the West Virginia Department of Education to develop and implement feeding programs for counties across the state as schools shut down prior to the normal summer recess.
As COVID-19 began to take hold, unemployment claims skyrocketed nationally and in West Virginia. The WVNG partnered with WorkForce WV working to provide supplemental manpower in order to expeditiously process large numbers of unemployment requests. These efforts helped to clear backlogs from the sudden surge in applications and made sure West Virginians claims were handled in a timely manner.
Feeding Hungry West Virginians
Combatting the need for feeding hungry West Virginians became a primary focus of response. The WVNG partnered with groups such as the Mountaineer Food Bank, Facing Hunger Food Bank, Greater Greenbrier Long-Term Recovery Group, West Virginia Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster and others, to help package and distribute more than 342,000 meals to children, elderly, and those in need across the state.
Coordinating efforts among organizations, the WVNG helped establish a centralized distribution center at its Rock Branch location in Poca, West Virginia to help better facilitate the increased demand for food storage for the major state food banks and rapid distribution of food stocks to needy communities.
COVID-19 Testing
Perhaps the most publicly visible part of the WVNG’s response efforts has been the photos and videos of WVNG personnel in full PPE conducting COVID-19 testing at locations throughout West Virginia.
Partnering with WVDHHR, local health departments, the West Virginia Nursing Home Association, West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and other requesters, the WVNG has helped to provide testing for nursing home and long-term care facilities, prison populations, and the general public in locations around the Mountain State.
To date, personnel from Task Force Medical and Task Force CRE have conducted more than 32,400 COVID-19 tests helping to identify positive cases and potential outbreaks.
Cyber Security & CARES Act Funding
Behind the scenes, the WVNG worked with partners to ensure COVID-19 did not negatively impact communities in ways not normally thought about, including critical infrastructure.
The WVNG’s Critical Infrastructure Protection Battalion worked with the Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency, West Virginia Office of Technology, West Virginia Secretary of State, West Virginia Department of Education, West Virginia Development Office, West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation, West Virginia Army Corps of Engineers, and the West Virginia Office of Health Facilities as well as others, to strengthen and secure potential vulnerabilities in computer systems and networks, and to research, test, and recommend software platforms considered for use in COVID-19 response efforts. This work also included evaluating network architectural design, security controls, and traffic analysis in order to reduce risk of inadvertent or malicious Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act patient data manipulation and/or disclosure.
WVNG’s Task Force Support also partnered with WVDEM to oversee and coordinate the implementation and reimbursement of Coronavirus Air Relief and Economic Security (CARES) funds authorized for West Virginia, including streamlining the application and reimbursement process and auditing efforts to ensure proper utilization of funding.
Summary
In each and every response effort, from testing to PPE distribution to cyber security taskings, the WVNG has looked to strengthen existing working relationships across the private and public sectors and to develop new ones. Bringing together agencies and organizations to combine efforts has enabled West Virginia to effectively combat COVID-19 and help to mitigate and minimize negative impacts.
“The efforts by the WVNG to help pull together and serve as the glue that bonds all these different agencies, businesses, groups, and organizations out there across our great state to combat this deadly disease has been nothing short of amazing,” said Governor Justice. “Their efforts, without a doubt, has helped to streamline response and has saved West Virginian lives, and just exemplifies the professionalism and commitment we have come to expect and that the WVNG always delivers.”
| Date Taken: | 08.07.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 08.07.2020 09:41 |
| Story ID: | 375481 |
| Location: | WV, US |
| Web Views: | 64 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, W.Va. Guard Partnerships Drive COVID-19 Response, by Edwin Wriston, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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