Testing Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

WVU Moves To Testing-Optional Admissions

West Virginia University initially adopted a test-optional admissions policy ahead of the Fall 2020 semester, when restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic were keeping many college-bound high school students from taking either the ACT or SAT.

West Virginia University (WVU) has permanently adopted a test-optional admissions policy.

WVU initially adopted a test-optional admissions policy ahead of the Fall 2020 semester, when restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic were keeping many college-bound high school students from taking either the ACT or SAT.

George Zimmerman, assistant vice president for WVU Enrollment Management, said a variety of ways for students to engage with education have emerged, and higher education is evolving and changing.

“We’re not trying to keep students out at WVU,” he said. “We want to give students as much access as possible to a college education, and giving students the ability to make that decision as to whether or not they want to submit a test score, and if that’s the best representation of them, in terms of their academics, really opens that door for a lot of students.”

Nationwide, more than 1,800 institutions are test-optional or test-free, according to FairTest, the National Center for Fair and Open Testing.

Zimmerman said the university’s recently announced budget shortfalls, as well as national drops in higher education enrollment, did not play a role in the decision.

“We were navigating a large societal change in terms of a global pandemic that we’ve never been through before, and students never been through before,” he said.

Students have the option of submitting test scores with their application, later or not at all.

“This policy is actually more about giving students that option to be able to apply with their scores or not, and really providing access and removing barriers for education,” Zimmerman said. “What we’ve seen nationally is that students like institutions to be test optional. I think there’s a lot of other characteristics that we’re really looking into and taking into consideration and making sure that we’re again, setting that student up for success.”

W.Va. Scaling Back Community Testing

During Thursday’s press briefing, Gov. Jim Justice announced a reduction in the state’s COVID-19 testing regiment, citing low attendance at testing sites.

COVID-19 testing is being scaled back across the state.

During Thursday’s press briefing, Gov. Jim Justice announced a reduction in the state’s COVID-19 testing regiment, citing low attendance at testing sites.

“To be perfectly honest, what’s happening is maybe all day two people come by or whatever, and we’re just spending money that really truly we don’t need to spend right now,” Justice said. “If things happen to get worse, we’ll be right back out there.”

State Health Officer Dr. Ayne Amjad made assurances that free testing, primarily in the form of at-home antigen kits, will still be readily available.

“We do want to reassure everyone that we will still have free testing available with our antigen home test kits,” Amjad said. “Those are dispersing out to health departments, federally qualified health centers and some other agencies, but we just want to make sure that everyone knows that we do have testing available still.”

While antigen tests, also known as rapid tests, provide convenience and fast results, usually in 15 to 20 minutes, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does acknowledge they are less reliable for people without symptoms compared to a laboratory test and may require follow-up testing.

The announcement comes as COVID-19 case numbers and hospitalizations continue to slowly rise in the state. Retired Maj Gen. Jim Hoyer said the state’s COVID-19 hospitalizations had reached 178, and warned that hospital capacity has decreased.

“Over a year ago, we were concerned about watching for the number of 800 and our hospitals based on capacity,” Hoyer said. “At one point we exceeded that to 1,100. Today, based on staffing issues and bed availability, our number that we now watch is 500.”

Coronavirus czar Dr. Clay Marsh says current case numbers could be more than 30 times higher than official counts due in part to the rise of at-home COVID-19 testing.

Justice and his advisers continue to urge West Virginians to stay up to date on their COVID-19 vaccines.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting with support from Charleston Area Medical Center and Marshall Health.

W.Va. Corrections Finds 3 More Prisoners With COVID-19 Through State-Wide Jail, Prison Testing

Three more prisoners and one employee for the state Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation have tested positive for the coronavirus, as state officials continue collecting results from all incarcerated people in West Virginia.

At a virtual press briefing Friday, Gov. Jim Justice said the DCR had completed testing at least 15 facilities, collecting results from nearly 3,300 incarcerated people and more than 1,700 employees. The state was waiting on results from nearly 3,150 tests, as of Friday afternoon.

Data that same day around 3 p.m. showed there was still a lot more testing to complete at five jails, four prisons, and six out of 10 juvenile detention centers. Among 220 minors at DCR facilities, only about 90 tests had been conducted by Friday.

According to Justice, of the about 550 tests that have come back, the DCR reported two positive prisoners in the Eastern Panhandle — at the Eastern Regional Jail and the Martinsburg Correctional Center — and one positive prisoner at the Potomac Highlands Regional Jail in Hampshire County.

“This testing enables us to just do exactly what we ought to be doing,” Justice said. “We’re right on top of it. We’re protecting these people in every way, and absolutely, we’re able to shut it down before it just eats us alive.”

All of the three new prisoners who tested positive were not showing symptoms of COVID-19, according to the DCR, and are being isolated from other prisoners, according to guidelines from the federal government.

Anyone showing symptoms for the virus is treated by on-site medical staff, according to comments from DCR Commissioner Betsy Jividen during the Friday briefing. Prisoners from the same living quarters as those who have tested positive also are automatically quarantined.

Of the about 400 tests that have returned from employees, one worker tested positive and is recovering home. As for prisoners, most are quarantined according to each facility’s ability.

“The enhanced testing — and we’re catching the asymptomatic cases — that’s given us a whole new tool as far as separating inmates who are positive, from those who have not yet been tested, and from those who are negative,” Jividen said Friday.

The expanded testing comes after an outbreak at the Huttonsville Correctional Center, in Randolph County. As of Friday afternoon, there were 28 individuals at Huttonsville with the coronavirus and a little more than 90 recovered cases.

All correctional facilities statewide are set to be tested by June 12.

COVID-19 Cases At Huttonsville Exceed 100; State Jails Again Over Capacity

Advocates are renewing calls to test and reduce the state’s incarcerated population, as its jails are once again overcrowded and more than 100 people have tested positive for the coronavirus in a state prison.

One of those advocates is Lida Shepherd, program director of the American Friends Service Committee, who is working on criminal justice reform in the state, along with West Virginia chapters of the ACLU, Americans for Prosperity and others.

“We think that it’s not hyperbole to say that a person who has not even been convicted of any crime could be facing a death sentence with the threat of COVID,” Shepherd said of the hundreds awaiting trial in state jails.

The population count in the state’s 10 regional jails dropped from 5,200 people on March 2 to almost 4,100 people on April 20. But numbers from the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation show it was back up this week at more than 4,500.

That’s about 300 people over capacity, system-wide, with six out of 10 jails on Tuesday holding more people than their prescribed bed count.

The state’s 11 prisons were all under capacity on Wednesday. That includes the Huttonsville Correctional Center in Randolph County, where more than 100 people have tested positive for the coronavirus.

There were fewer people in jail earlier in the pandemic because police were making fewer arrests, more people were on parole and more low-risk, pre-trial defendants were released without cash bond. But now that in-person hearings have resumed and the Justice administration has eased social distancing guidelines, allowing law enforcement to take more people into custody, jail populations will only grow more and experience increased turnover, said Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation Commissioner Betsy Jividen.

During a Wednesday virtual press briefing, Jividen stated the DCR continues to review its protocols for testing as jails take on more people. She said the DCR is closely watching the Huttonsville prison in Randolph County, and how the virus has spread among the asymptomatic.

“It is going to instruct us on further operational ways to protect the population and in turn the community,” said Jividen, referring to the Huttonsville outbreak.

Gov. Jim Justice said during the same briefing he’d like to see the state test more than 9,300 people in the state’s custody, including the more than 4,700 people in state prisons, “as we continue to expand our testing capabilities.”

Corrections spokesman Lawrence Messina said Wednesday evening the DCR is “committed to carrying this out,” and continues to discuss resources and strategy with state health care leaders.

The governor confirmed last week that a 62-year-old man at Huttonsville was the first known prisoner in state custody to contract the coronavirus. Since then, the number of positive cases at Huttonsville has surpassed 100, with eight employees and 102 prisoners having tested positive by Wednesday afternoon. More than 300 tests were still processing in West Virginia labs.

It’s exactly what advocates say they worried about: people living in close quarters who might not be experiencing symptoms could infect each other, without the ability to stay at least six feet from other other people.

Through a statewide policy the DCR shared in April, facilities have enhanced cleaning procedures, Jividen said, and everyone is supposed to be provided with a mask. Further, in-person visitations have been canceled for now. The division has not posted policies developed by individual jails and prisons, for how they plan to enforce spacing requirements and mask-wearing.

“I think that there is still some inconsistency in terms of the precautions being taken in those facilities,” said attorney Jennifer Wagner from Mountain State Justice, which helped file legal action against the DCR for its handling of the pandemic in March. “But I think the really important thing to think about is that there is really no way for people to be able to maintain effective social distancing when they’re in a congregate setting. … The risk is never going to be zero, as long as we’re keeping people shoulder to shoulder in congregate settings.”

The roughly 1,030 people incarcerated at Huttonsville were all tested before Monday — plus about 30 people at the nearby work camp.

Outside Huttonsville, 43 tests were conducted total throughout the other 10 state prisons. In the state’s 10 regional jails, only a little over 90 tests have been conducted, according to data from the DCR provided Wednesday.

“This testing is going to have to be on a periodic basis, you know, because there is this turnover in facilities,” said Shepherd from the AFSC. “I think, inevitably, this isn’t going to be just a one-time thing. This is going to have to happen over time, while also doing everything we can to reduce the incarcerated population.”

Shepherd and others on a coalition for criminal justice reform have advocated for reduced jail and prison populations for the pandemic since March.

The group supports reducing the state’s traditionally overcrowded regional jails in general, even rallying behind a bill in the last legislative session for parole and bail reform for certain pre-trial defendants. That legislation is slated to take effect June 5, 2020.

Shortly before the governor’s press briefing, Randolph County Del. Cody Thompson, a Democrat, wrote the governor requesting statewide testing for all corrections staff and prisoners, stating concern specifically for Randolph County’s Tygart Regional Jail. That facility was nearly 80 people over capacity as of Wednesday.

Emily Allen is a Report for America corps member.

Coronavirus Testing Set At W.Va. Poultry Processing Plant

This is a developing story and may be udpated.

The West Virginia National Guard began conducting tests for COVID-19 this week at a poultry processing plant in Moorefield, Hardy County. According to the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, the number of positive tests in the county have increased recently.

In a virtual press conference Friday, Gov. Jim Justice said members of the National Guard would be sent to Moorefield to respond to testing needs at Pilgrim’s Pride, a chicken processing plant that’s the largest employer in the county.

Testing at the Pilgrim’s Pride plant of about 940 workers in Moorefield will occur on every shift, Hardy County sheriff’s office spokesman David Maher said in a news release. The office is handling media requests for the health department.

“We appreciate the ongoing cooperation of Pilgrim’s Pride and the many folks in our community that work in the processing plant,” said Hardy County Health Department administrator William Ours in a prepared statement. “We have a shared goal of keeping everyone healthy and ensuring the ongoing safe operation of our food processing facilities.”

Pilgrim’s Pride spokeswoman Nikki Richardson said in a statement that workers at the plant will have a “choice” to be tested.

“The health and safety of our team members remains our highest priority. We have implemented a wide of [sic] range of measures at our facility to combat coronavirus,” Richardson said. “Today, every Pilgrim’s facility temperature checks 100 percent of the workforce before they enter a facility. We also provide and require face masks to be worn at all times on company property.”

She also said the company will not punish workers for not coming into work for health reasons.

The sheriff’s office spokesman, David Maher, said he thinks there “were a few cases related to the plant” but he did not elaborate, and Pilgrim’s won’t say either.

Richardson said some Pilgrim’s Pride employees across the U.S. have tested positive for COVID-19, but that “out of respect for the families, we are not releasing further information.”

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Hardy County jumped from three on April 27 to 16 as of Monday morning, according to DHHR’s coronavirus tracker and the Hardy County Health Department’s Facebook page.

Meat processing plant workers are an especially vulnerable population during this crisis. Thousands of workers have tested positive for the coronavirus at meat processing plants across the country leading to the closure of some plants and prompting meat shortages.

Gov. Jim Justice requested the tests at the Moorefield plant, which remains open.

“We’re going to do some extensive testing there and try to nip that in the bud and stop it as fast as we possibly can in order to be able to keep that plant moving,” Justice said Friday.

Additionally, the National Guard will also be helping the local Hardy County Health Department with contact tracing and recommendations for self-isolation.

At least 54 people in West Virginia have died from the virus and 1,366 have tested positive, according to DHHR on Monday morning.

For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, the virus can cause severe illness or death. For most people, it causes mild or moderate symptoms that clear up in two to three weeks.

Williamson Hospital Closing Tuesday, With Plans To Be Purchased Soon

The Williamson Memorial Hospital in Mingo County is prepared to close on Tuesday, while a local health center finalizes plans to purchase the institution.

Earlier this month, the Williamson Health and Wellness Center announced its offer to purchase the hospital for $3.68 million.

Darrin McCormick, executive assistant and community liaison for the center, said on Monday his employer’s intentions haven’t changed and they hope to have the deal sealed by the end of this month.

Hospital staff were not available to address how many patients are currently being treated at the facility, and where patients will go during the hospital’s closure. According to a statement from the facility’s CEO Gene Preston on Facebook, the hospital spent seven months reorganizing after filing for bankruptcy in the fall. However, the impact from the ongoing pandemic was too “sudden and severe” for the hospital to handle.

“I remain in awe of the dedication and perseverance of the employees of the hospital, whom I have had the pleasure to work with and to know,” the statement read. “It is rare to find such a dedicated work force with an aligned vision and purpose to take care of patients and the community. I want all of you to know that your influence on me has made me a better leader and person.”

McCormick said he’s unsure who the hospital will rehire when the purchase is finalized, but the fact that the Mingo County area medical community is small means many of the former Williamson Memorial employees could return to work in the same place.

The hospital is closing its doors weeks after the state began testing for the coronavirus, which has killed 26 people statewide. More than 900 people have tested positive, according to the state Department of Health and Human Resources.

“We’re all here deeply saddened by the closing. It’s a huge loss for us and we’ve always worked closely with the hospital,” said Keith Blankenship, administrator for the Mingo County Health Department on Monday. “Hopefully something better will come along through the Health and Wellness Center.”

According to Blankenship, all three of Mingo County’s federally qualified health centers – including Williamson Health and Wellness – offer testing. On Monday, he reported the county had collected more than 150 tests.

Hospitals in Logan County and in nearby Kentucky remain open.

“Mileage wise, it doesn’t look that far, [but] it’s still time consuming to get to them, because of our roads,” Blankenship said.

Two people have tested positive for the coronavirus in Mingo County as of April 20, one of which has died. Across the Tug Fork River in Pike County, Kentucky, the local health department’s website says there have been six positive cases, including two deaths and one recovery.

Emily Allen is a Report for America corps member.