The Greater Greenbrier COVID-19 Task Force met this morning via conference call and reports the following information.
HEALTH DEPARTMENT. Greenbrier County has 118 total positive cases, 3 suspect cases, 111 recovered cases, 7 active cases, 0 hospitalized, and 3 deaths. The majority of new cases continue to be community transmission cases. (This means the virus is here, and folks are acquiring it here.) The good news is that our active cases are shrinking. Over the past week, we’ve only seen 3 new cases, which is a good slowdown over the past few weeks. Please wear a mask, socially distance, and wash your hands to prevent the spread of the virus.
YELLOW. We went “yellow” last week according to the state. This was due to a data error at the state level. According to our numbers, we should’ve stayed green. As a rule of thumb, please always remember the local numbers are the most current for the public to watch.
GREENBRIER COUNTY SCHOOLS. Thanks to our parents, students, employees, and communities for their hard work last week in opening schools. All in all, we had a good opening week. Virtual school registrations continue. This is a new process and has seen some bumps, so thank you for your patience as we work through the tech issues. As of now, 62 students in Greenbrier County have signed up for virtual education. In terms of PPE, we want to make sure our staff has everything they need. We are reaching out to our principals today to ensure folks can communicate their needs.
GV MEDICAL CENTER. Our visitation policy will align with the county school systems in our region. Look for details this coming week.
RCB CLINIC. Starting next Monday, we will expand our mobile clinic hours to 9am-1pm for all patients & 1-330pm for children.
LONG TERM RECOVERY received some good news about grants for Alderson flooding which we are excited about! Since no federal funds are available, we are reliant exclusively on what we can raise. Be in touch if you’d like to assist.
COMMITTEE ON AGING. We are participating in the governor’s summer feeding program still into the fall. These meals (five days worth) can be picked up once a week. We also have vouchers for farmer’s markets available for seniors. If you have questions, you can call the office at 304-392-5138. We continue to provide in-home services, Meals on Wheels, and meals to go for our senior citizens. Medical transport continues as well for those we need it. The state is working on a reopening plan for seniors centers like ours, and we are awaiting that guidance.
THE HUB. Dinners continue to be available. Free for students and $5 for adults. Call ahead 304-647-4994 by noon to place your order! We are using local produce as much as possible to prepare these meals.
UNITED WAY. Our WV 211 service remains available. If you know families in need of services, please have them call us at 2-1-1.
EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT. All of our county shelters are supplied with PPE should we have weather or COVID events. First responders continue to need PPE, so we continue to work on making it available for them. The school is doing a great job sanitizing their facilities! We also have a new unit to assist with sanitization through the county.
WV SENATE. The additional $400 unemployment benefit is set to be available to folks out of work due to the pandemic this week. Don’t forget to apply for the small business grants (grants.wv.gov) as applications close in two weeks. Expect to see further “tweaks” to the color-coded system later today. As I’ve said for a few weeks now, we have got to have consistent and accurate maps for this system to work.
