COVID-19 UPDATE: Gov. Justice announces backlog of unemployment claims has been cleared; reports progress on mass nursing home testing

“I can’t say enough for how we’ve pounded a massive round peg into a square hole in West Virginia and been able to punch out all these claims,” Gov. Justice said. “I hate like crazy that they didn’t all come out on day one. But all the people that were sitting at home worried, I hope there’s real-live relief coming your way and that all your dollars are going to be backfilled and taken care of.

“Now, there are some claims that need some manual work because the claimant has listed an incorrect business address or other types of personal information that we need to get straight. But the WorkForce is dealing with these individuals and calling them and helping them on a personal basis.”

The Governor reminded qualified workers that applications for PUA will open on Friday, April 24, 2020, at 10 p.m. Applications will be available online at WorkForceWV.org.

This week, West Virginia became the first state in the nation to begin a full-scale nursing home testing program. Today, Gov. Justice announced that he expects all testing to be complete by the middle of next week.

“They’ve done amazing work in testing the nursing homes and they are proceeding ahead very, very quickly,” Gov. Justice said. “It’s a monumental task if you think about it. We had tested 22,000 people in 40 days and now we’re going out and testing 28,000 people in a very, very concise period.

“And we’re getting better results than what I’d feared,” Gov. Justice said. “And this program, with West Virginia being first in the nation to do it, you see, if you watch the national news, the CDC and everybody’s coming out and saying we should be doing this on a national basis.”

“It’s the true mountaineer spirit. I just love you. Keep doing the great work you’re doing.”

“We’re going to absolutely jump on every pothole, the pulling of every ditch, and we’re going to just stay after it until we get this thing across the finish line,” Gov. Justice said. “We all know that our roads got in this condition by decades of neglect. But my administration has directed more money to roads than ever before in our history. We’ve gotten right after it and we’ve done it without raising taxes.”

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In addition to conducting COVID-19 testing for nursing homes, the WVNG’s Task Force CRE continues their missions of providing personal protective equipment (PPE) training to long-term care facilities, visiting six locations today. Members are also providing assistance for COVID-19 drive through testing lanes, sanitization of facilities, and N95 mask fit testing. To date, this team has trained 646 stores, 2,924 personnel, and 56 medical or long-term care facilities.

Since beginning operations in support of the state’s COVID-19 response 41 days ago, the WVNG has completed 621 missions.

Click here to read more on the WVNG’s response efforts