FAIRMONT – How do you box out COVID-19?
A basketball player for the WVU Mountaineers had a three-point answer Thursday in Fairmont.
“Wear a mask,” Jalen Bridges said.
“Practice social distancing,” he added.
“And wash your hands,” he concluded, “because this thing isn’t going away.”
Bridges, 19, was a basketball star for the Polar Bears of Fairmont Senior High School before being recruited to play the sport at state’s land grant university in Morgantown.
On the cloudy morning at Windmill Park, a leafy expanse of green just a few blocks down from his old neighborhood, he was again recruited another state team whose opponent is the coronavirus.
He was there as a guest of the COVID-19 Commission on African American Disparities, or the “task force,” as it’s simply known in pandemic shorthand.
It was created by the state two months ago in response to the bacterial aftermath of a church service and anniversary gathering at a small Black church just over the Marion County line in Monongalia.
As many as seven congregations of neighboring Black churches poured into the doors of Friendship Baptist in the unincorporated community of Everettville on March 15, as health officials in Charleston were assessing the threat of COVID-19.
A day later, Gov. Jim Justice declared at state of emergency.
Before the month was out, two people who were at the Friendship Baptist event were dead, and others were ill.
Hodges, who began calling state lawmakers and health officials as COVID-19 roiled through the guest list, was appointed by Justice to the commission, and began organizing free screening events for the Black community and anyone else who wanted a test.
Thursday at Windmill Park was a clinical rehearsal of sorts for another screening event there Saturday, Hodges said.
The task force is linking up with the health departments of Marion and Taylor counties, for the free tests, which will be from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. at the park on Ogden Avenue.
Also hosting are the state Department of Health and Human Resources, the West Virginia National Guard, Kroger Supermarkets and the Herbert Henderson Office of Minority Affairs.
Anyone can catch it
Windmill Park, and Ogden Avenue are in the heart of Fairmont’s Black community, but organizers, Hodges said, won’t necessarily be necessarily looking for pigment – just people.
People, in fact, in a specific age range, from 18 to 32.
That’s the demographic that sometimes thinks it’s invulnerable to the coronavirus, said Lloyd White, the administrator of the Marion County Health Department.
That’s the demographic that’s testing positive right now in Marion County, and elsewhere across the state.
Younger people, he said, don’t always wear masks or social distance or do the diligent hand-washing Bridges was harping about.
And contact tracing, he said, can be almost insurmountable.
“They don’t answer the phone,” he said. “You don’t get always get an honest answer when you ask who they’ve been around.”
And, Hodges said, echoing White’s frustration on contact tracing, they bring COVID-19 home to their families.
“Our slogan on the commission is, ‘Do Your Part,’” she said.
“We want you to do your part by getting tested. We want you to take advantage of the free screening.”
COVID chronicles
While West Virginia is faring better than some of its neighbors, pandemics are still relative to the population.
As of 5 p.m. Thursday, the state Department of Health and Human Resources reported 6,422 cases and 115 deaths.
Marion County had 166 cases to the 45 in Taylor County.
There were 153 cases in Monongalia as of that time.
‘This is our world’
Meanwhile, Bridges submitted to a swab Thursday, as did Justice Samuels, who was also celebrating her 25th birthday.
They weren’t being officially tested, but the procedure was real, just to show people what it will be like Saturday from their car, for the drive-through diagnostics.
“It’s a tickle,” Bridges said. “It’s something up your nose, and that’s it. You have to do it, because it’s your health, and everyone’s health.”
“I’ve been tested before for real,” Samuels said. “Today isn’t anything that would keep me from doing it again.”
Besides, she said, COVID-19 has already hit her social circle. Two friends, both in their early 20s have been diagnosed in recent weeks.
One had a mild case, she said. The other, though, struggled, and also infected family members along the way.
“Right now, this is our world.”
TWEET@DominionPostWV
