Photo By Sgt. Davis Rohrer | A member of the West Virginia National Guard's COVID-19 response prepares for a...... read more read more
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At the direction of Governor Jim Justice nearly two weeks ago, the West Virginia National Guard ramped up its efforts to provide increased testing capacity throughout the State of West Virginia, which has resulted in a staggering 15,109 COVID-19 tests conducted in the last 13 days.
Guard personnel, with the assistance of local health department workers, have been working around the clock the establish locations, advertise testing and conduct multiple lanes in some counties each day. In total, 388 testing lanes have been held since Oct. 30, 2020.
"The Governor has been clear that we needed to increase our testing capabilities as a state in order to prevent further spread of COVID-19 in communities throughout West Virginia," said Maj. Gen. James Hoyer, Adjutant General of the WVNG. "Our personnel and the local health departments across the state have done an exception job of stepping up to the plate and working non-stop on the front lines to provide access to free testing."
"Our testing numbers have been on the rise and are steadying at a level that in necessary to identify and address community spread," he continued. "We are working diligently to establish additional static testing locations throughout the state to meet increasing demand."
In the past week, COVID-19 testing has increased to an average of around 10,000 tests per day and total tests increased by 13,000 topping 70,000 tests conducted for the past seven days, as reported by Commissioner Christina Mullins.
West Virginia Guard support in other areas of pandemic response remains consistent as there are 472 service members working COVID-19 response, which has surpassed day 245.
As a means to help prevent disease spread in nursing homes, the WVNG's Task Force CRE, which specializes in personal protective equipment wear, cross contamination prevention and hazardous materials response, has started to install isolation protective barriers at locations throughout the state. The barriers serve as a means to minimize contamination throughout a facility by isolating and containing droplets. So far, one nursing home has been completed with an additional one scheduled for installation on Monday.
Disinfection missions remain a top priority for the Guard and to date, 210 facilities in 27 counties have been sanitized.
Task Force Sustainment, the logistical and supply chain experts for the Guard's COVID-19 response, have provided assistance in assembling COVID-19 test kits, delivering PPE to locations throughout the state and also had personnel perform courier services to expedite the transfer of test specimen to labs.
In total, the Guard has successfully completed more than 2,614 assigned missions since the beginning of the worldwide pandemic and state-level activation.
These mission successes include, but are not limited to:
. Received and distributed 19,694,934 pieces of PPE
. Sanitization of 632 first responder vehicles
. Disinfection of 11,591 N-95 masks
. Administration of 67,949 COVID-19 tests at various testing lanes or support missions
. Assembly of 412,200 COVID-19 testing kits
. Training of 834 businesses, 111 long term care facilities or medical practices and 4,838 civilians on COVID-19 prevention best practices
. Production of 220,639 pieces of PPE to include masks, gowns, face shields, etc.
B-roll footage of current and ongoing WVNG missions are available at: www.dvidshub.net/unit/wv-ang
| Date Taken: | 11.07.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 11.13.2020 12:57 |
| Story ID: | 382976 |
| Location: | CHARLESTON, WV, US |
| Web Views: | 27 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Guard-led initiative resulting in more West Virginians having access to COVID-19 testing, by Maj. Holli Nelson, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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