West Virginia Governor Jim Justice gave an update on the outbreak at the Huttonsville Correctional Center during Thursday's COVID-19 press conference and announced a restructuring of one of the state's most vital departments.

 

The Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety (DMAPS) will now be the West Virginia Department of Homeland Security.

 

"The biggest thing today is we have 105 confirmed cases among the inmates at Huttonsville," Justice said. "It looks like we are getting the situation under control at the prison."

 

Justice expanded on Wednesday's annoucement that all inmates and staff at every prison in the state will be tested for coronavirus — a total of nearly 14,000 people.

 

"Everyone needs to understand that testing has been a problem," Justice said. "But testing has expanded significantly. We had to prioritize who had the biggest issues at the time. Nursing homes were a big-time issue and we ran to that fire. With this outbreak in the prison, we have the capabilites now of testing all prisoners statewide and I think it won't take as long as it did with the nursing homes."

 

The governor added that expanded testing will soon be under way in the community surrouding the Huttonsville facility. Details should be available over the weekend.

 

Free testing is being done today in Fayette County and will take place on Friday in Berkeley, Kanawha, Jefferson, Mineral and and Morgan counties.

 

Department of Health and Human Resources Secretary Bill Crouch provided an update on the recent free testing in Monongalia, Marion, Cabell and Kanawha counties and said 3,058 people were tested with only six positives.

 

Justice said there would be a meeting later today to discuss youth sports and he should be able to provide information during Friday's press conference.

 

"I know there are still questions that need to be answered with the youth activities," Justice said. "We have postpones as long as we can and we hope to have some guidelines tomorrow."

 

The governor once again encouraged cities and counties to submit their applications for CARES Act funding and that right now, only eight have applications have been submitted and it should be hundreds.

 

The press release from today's briefing can viewed HERE

 

Video from Thursday's press conference can be viewed below.