Updated 1:56 p.m . Nov. 12, 2020
KINGWOOD — The free community COVID testing location has changed for Friday in Preston County.
Testing will be 8 a.m.-noon Friday at the Reedsville Fire Department and 2-5 p.m. at Bruceton Mills WesBanco.
On Saturday testing will be 8 a.m.-noon at the Terra Alta Fire Department and 2-5 p.m. at Fireman’s Field in Kingwood.
KINGWOOD — Preston County lost another person to COVID-19 this week, and free testing continues.
A 65-year-old man was the sixth Preston resident to die of the virus, Preston Health Department Director V.J. Davis told the Preston County Commission Tuesday. It was the second death within a week.
As of Tuesday morning the county had 248 confirmed cases, 35 probable and 56 active cases. Three people are hospitalized with COVID.
“But more importantly, the number I wanted you to hear this morning was since Oct. 15 we have had 106 new cases. We have literally blown up the last three weeks,” Davis said.
There’s another troubling statistic, Davis said, and that’s how many more people are catching it through contact with infected people.
“Early on we didn’t see that. We’d see a positive result but we wouldn’t see like the people in their household or contacts turning out positive,” he said.
“Which kind of tells us it’s more easily spread now or it could just be that we’re at the end of summer and people are spending more time inside where it can spread easier. There’s probably numerous reasons.”
Free COVID-19 tests sites are set up in Preston all week. Eighty-five people were tested Monday in Terra Alta. The main purpose of testing is to identify asymptomatic positives who may unknowingly spread the virus, Davis said.
Testing sites:
- Tuesday
8 a.m.-noon, Firemen’s Field, Kingwood, enter off Price Street at the Hot Dog Stand.
2-5 p.m., Denver Church, directly across from West End Road, enter driveway off South Preston Highway.
- Wednesday
8 a.m.-noon, WesBanco Bank, Bruceton, enter using entrance to the parking lot.
2-5 p.m. Denver Church, directly across from West End Road, enter the driveway off South Preston Highway.
- Thursday
8 a.m.-noon, Firemen’s Field, Kingwood, enter off Price Street at the Hot Dog Stand.
2-5 p.m., Terra Alta Fire Department, enter off State Street.
- Friday
8 a.m.-noon, Denver Church, directly across from West End Road, enter the driveway off South Preston Highway.
2-5 p.m., WesBanco Bank, Bruceton, enter using entrance to the parking lot.
- Saturday
8 a.m.-noon, Terra Alta Fire Department, enter off State Street.
2-5 p.m. Firemen’s Field, Kingwood, enter off Price Street at the Hot Dog Stand.
At Monday’s Preston County Board of Education meeting, Superintendent Steve Wotring said if the State Department of Education map goes red, county schools will go remote the next day.
“I just pray we can make it to Thanksgiving,” he told the board of education.
The spread isn’t being seen inside schools much, he said. Students are being exposed elsewhere.
Wotring praised Assistant Superintendents Ange Varner and Brad Martin for their work responding to COVID-19, doing contact tracing and other work.
“It’s just an extraordinary amount of hours, and I just could not survive without them,” Wotring said.
Board President Jack Keim thanked all three and said, “You’re real blessings to this board.”
TWEET@DominionPostWV
