Governor Justice Taps a Coronavirus Czar to Fight the Pandemic

Gov. Jim Justice said he made a substantial request to White House for masks and medical equipment for the state and said he was making a West Virginia University administrator the state’s COVID-19 czar to help battle the pandemic. West Virginia Adjutant General James Hoyer said the state has made a request to the federal government, as well as made attempts to privately source a minimum of 5 million surgical masks, 2.5 million N95 respirators, 30,000 additional extraction kits for testing and 150,000 transport media sets used to transport swabs and specimens. WVU is loaning Dr. Clay Marsh, the vice president and executive dean for health sciences at the university, to the state to work with Dr. Cathy Slemp, commissioner for the state Bureau of Public Health, and Bill Crouch, secretary for the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources to battle the pandemic.