Gov. Jim Justice says West Virginia is investing heavily in coronavirus testing, and he urges state residents to reciprocate by going out to get tested.
“The testing that we’re doing right now — to give you an idea of the cost of the testing, the testing forever was $100 a test. And I think we’ve got it a little less than that in some locations,” Justice said.
“If we test 12,000 people a day, the cost of that testing is a million, two hundred thousand dollars a day, or right at it.”
He said a portion of the original $1.25 billion in CARES Act funding West Virginia received from the federal government will help pay for that testing cost.
“So, we’ve got to have a little buffer,” Justice said.
Justice’s administration has described a goal of testing 10,000 residents a day. There are free testing sites every day all over the state.
The governor says increased testing is likely to catch more people who may be asymptomatic or unaware that they’re even ill. Confirmation would allow health officials to advise those people to isolate. Justice says each time that happens it can cut off an avenue of virus spread.
“You’ve got to get tested,” Justice said.
“If you’re asymptomatic, the odds are you’re going to get sicker. If you don’t feel anything today, you may be getting ready to get really sick. If you don’t ever feel any symptoms, you’re infecting your loved ones and they may very well die.”
Justice said he’s been tested at least 15 times.
“We’ve got to really bear down. Get tested. I need you to do that.”
West Virginia recorded 352 virus cases in the past 24 hours.
Today’s positivity rate was 4.19. “That’s too high,” Justice said.
Hospitalizations today were 254, with 84 in the intensive care unit. Both statistics are as high as they’ve been since the pandemic began.
“Let’s just hope and pray that some way we’ll continue to get through this,” Justice said.