MORGANTOWN — Gov. Jim Justice announced a new executive order during his Wednesday coronavirus press briefing. With the nursing home testing completed, he’s ordering testing at all assisted living facilities and residential care communities.
In addition, he’s ordering that all daycare staff be tested. The daycare testing stems from a new discovery, he said. Several daycare staffs had undergone voluntary testing and four staff members in Kanawha County tested positive. None of them showed any symptoms.
Adjutant General James Hoyer said one of those positives came from the National Guard child development center. That person is in quarantine and they are sanitizing the whole facility.
Asked about timing and how many centers will be tested, Bureau for Public Health Commissioner Cathy Slemp would only say that 600 caring for 11,000 children remained in operation during the stay-at-home order and more will be opening. So the testing won’t be a one-time fix event.
Picking up on Tuesday’s questions about the African-American communities, Justice said that the Department of Health and Human Resources and the National Guard are beginning targeted testing of those communities.
DHHR Secretary Bill Crouch said they are establishing what areas to test and first in sight are Monongalia, Marion, Berkeley, Jefferson and Raleigh counties; they may add other areas as they move forward and analyze the data. They are employing mobile and drive-through testing.
Crouch also mentioned the advisory task force for African-American issues relative to the coronavirus and said they would be contacting potential members on Wednesday.
On the economic front. Justice reminded everyone that the state has $1.25 billion in CARES Act money sitting in a bank account waiting for the feds to finalize the rules before he spends it. The U.S. Senate is back in action and the House will return next week, so he expects the ever-evolving rules to be finalized after that. And he expects more rollouts in future legislation.
He hopes people will trust him and his adivsors to make the right decisions, he said. He’s working with in-house staff and paid consultants. “You’ve go a business guy that’s here. … We are working this from so many different angles it’s unbelievable. … We’re going to do the smart thing.”
He wants to make sure first responders get the protective gear they need, but he also needs to make sure the state doesn’t go bankrupt, he said once again, and wants to use some of the money to fill the expected $500 million budget shortfall. He’ll work with both sides of the political aisle to develop his plans.
WorkForce West Virginia has received a total 170,000 coronavirus-related unemployment claims, he said, and more than 15% need special handling for various issues and mistakes. SO the response on those has been slower. “Try to bear with us.” He’s directed Director Scott Adkins to get them done as quickly as possible and ask him for help if needed.
Wednesday was National Nurses Day and Justice said he issued a proclamation honoring nurses for their brave work during the pandemic. His advisors added their praise as they each took a turn making their comments.
Wednesday’s coronavirus numbers from the DHHR were 1,276 positive cases out of 56,085 test results – a cumulative rate of 2.28% – with 51 deaths, up from 50 on Saturday.
Justice and COVID-19 Czar offered their daily warning not to grow complacent as the state fares better than the nation as a whole.
“The days ahead are not just quiet seas and clear sailing,” Justice said.
Marsh said that the R0 number – the figure that indicates how many people a single infected person might infect – is trending back up slightly. It was .76 on Monday, .83 on Tuesday, .90 on Wednesday,. Anything below 1 is good but the upswing suggests the virus may be spreading again. That metric plus all the others will guide the pace of the reopening.
Flattening the growth curve of the virus, he said, just bought more time to stock up on PPE and prepare for any surges that may occur. The virus is still there and we still have vulnerable and immune deficient residents. We’re still in the first quarter of a four-quarter game.
He and Justice reinforced the precautions: distancing, masks, hand washing.
Justice said we shouldn’t deceive ourselves “its all good. … This nasty killer will take some of your loved ones away if you don’t liste.” There are storms in front but “you can make the rough storms become maybe a steady little drizzle.”
Tweet David Beard @dbeardtdp Email dbeard@dominionpost.com
