The Greater Greenbrier COVID-19 Task Force met this morning via conference call and reports the following information.
HEALTH DEPARTMENT. Cases remain significantly lower. Greenbrier County has 1,626 confirmed cases, 3 suspect cases, 759 probable cases, 2,306 recovered cases, 32 active cases, 1 hospitalized, and 50 deaths. (These numbers will be updated this afternoon.)
GUIDELINES. The numbers are vastly improved. However, this is not the time to stop following guidelines. The UK variant of COVID is in West Virginia. We want our kids back in school, we want to do more social events, so please keep wearing masks so we can keep these numbers low.
LEGISLATURE. The local health departments are watching the legislative session closely as several bills aim to take away local health department authority. Now is not the time. Please contact your legislators to advocate for public health.
VACCINE CLINIC. We are hosting a vaccine clinic this Thursday at the fairgrounds. Kayla McCoy with GGLTRC is coordinating our volunteers, and we are very grateful to everyone for helping us in this community effort! Thus far, we at the Health Department have vaccinated 6,500 residents. (This does not include all other local providers who have vaccinated citizens.)
VACCINE HOTLINE. The state hotline for vaccinations is 833-734-0965 or www.vaccinate.wv.gov. Everyone must sign up through this system to get vaccinated.
TESTING. We have many testing sites throughout the county each day. Please utilize community testing at RCB Clinic, MedExpress, Greenbrier Physicians, Rainelle Medical Center, and Monroe Health Center (free daily testing from 1-3 p.m.). Please do not show up to the Emergency Room for a COVID test.
SCHOOLS. As we are in the “green,” our elementary school students are in-person all week. Our secondary students are also returning in-person more often as able. We made some revisions yesterday to our return to school plan to the WVDE which would include more in-person days for secondary students. Our goal is to have all of our students back in-person as soon as possible.
RCB CLINIC. We are seeing some patients who are hesitant to receive a vaccine due to anxieties about side effects. Adverse events associated with the vaccine thus far only occur in 0.00005% of vaccinations. Serious events are even more rare. So we strongly recommend that patients receive a vaccine when one is offered to them.
RAINELLE MEDICAL CENTER. We are doing a vaccination clinic Wednesday using the state list. So far, we’ve vaccinated several thousand citizens.
COMMITTEE ON AGING. We continue to advocate for senior center staff to be vaccinated so we can safely care for seniors. As always, we continue to offer our normal services for our clients.
TUTORING. Once schools return in-person on a full-time basis, the tutoring program will end.
MEALS FOR VACCINE CLINIC WORKERS. We are supplying free meals provided by local restaurants and paid for by local donors for all vaccine clinic workers each week. Many thanks to Jen Mason for coordinating, Kelly and the State Fair for hosting the clinics, and all local partners making these meals possible!
BROADBAND. COVID has taught us all the importance of broadband in health care, education, and business. We are developing a task force subcommittee on broadband which will meet this Thursday, Feb. 25, at 9 a.m. via Zoom. If you’re interested in joining us, please send an email to: stephen.baldwin@wvsenate.gov.
Submitted by Senator Stephen Baldwin, chair of the Task Force.
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