CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Gov. Jim Justice took a COVID-19 test during his live streamed coronavirus media briefing at the state capitol Wednesday.
Justice said he wanted state residents to see how easy it is to take a test.
“There’s nothing to it. It takes every bit of 10 seconds. There’s no pain. There’s no nothing. There’s a split little bit of something that makes you try to sneeze,” Justice said.
Justice took the test, the latest of many he said he’s taken during the pandemic, to further urge state residents to get tested especially those who live in counties that are ‘orange’ or ‘red’ on the COVID-19 map.
“Mon (Monongalia) County, Kanawha County, Putnam County, all of the counties that have been in the orange and red, listen to me, you are so close,” Justice said. “You are so close to being there. I want you to be there so badly.”
Justice announced a plan Wednesday to send the National Guard into those counties to conduct more widespread testing. He said local health departments have been doing a good job but he wants more testing in an attempt to lower the positivity rate so schools can reopen along with corresponding extra-curricular activities.
Justice said the reopenings are important but more importantly, additional tests will find those who are spreading the virus without knowing it.
“I want the information. I want them to lay in front of me the information of thousands of tests to where I can go directly as a pinpoint surgical strike and go directly to the problem and help those people and get that situation fixed,” Justice said.
A county can improve its color designation on the school COVID-19 map by reducing the number of overall cases or by positivity rate. Justice said additional testing can take down the positivity number.
Kanawha County had a daily positivity rate of 7.5% percent Tuesday. Putnam’s rate had dropped to 1.61% and Monongalia County’s was at 1.67%. Those numbers could change because of a lag in reporting.
Orange counties can move to gold with a positivity rate of less than 5%; gold counties can move to yellow with a positive rate of less than 4%; yellow can move to green with a rate of less than 3%.
State Coronavirus Czar Doctor Clay Marsh said Wednesday on MetroNews “Talkline” it’s important to get different people to test.
“We want people to test and we want a lot of people to test not just a few people that test all the time,” Marsh said.
.@ClayMarsh joined @HoppyKercheval to discuss the recent numbers regarding West Virginia’s testing numbers, and what it all means. WATCH: https://t.co/wkudfIRZCB pic.twitter.com/kQmWF6MbQy
— MetroNews (@WVMetroNews) September 23, 2020
Gov. Justice called for 7,000 tests a day in his Monday media briefing. DHHR Secretary Bill Crouch said the state had the capacity to handle about 10,000 tests a day.
The state had a 3.35 daily positivity rate in numbers released by the state Department of Health and Human Resources Wednesday. There are 120 new cases with 3,464 active cases in West Virginia. Deaths from COVID-19 now number 319, the latest a 91-year old female and an 80-year old male both from Kanawha County.
Justice ended his briefing by asking state residents to “pile on us all of those tests” and then he promised “we’ll fix this thing.”
“We do not have the power but with God’s great assistance we will get there,” Justice said.