West Virginia to offer free in-home COVID-19 tests

Residents will be able to call or go online and request that a test kit be mailed to them, said Gov. Jim Justice.

“These are saliva-based test kits available to West Virginia residents at no cost to them,” he said. “Any fees will be waived once a West Virginia address is entered on the Vault Health site.”

Test results should be received within 24 to 48 hours, said Dr. Clay Marsh, the state’s COVID-19 czar.

“Once the Vault tube and sample kit comes to your home, then you log on to a computer connection and then log in your information, and you’ll get a video visit from an expert at Vault who will talk you through the steps to collect the saliva sample in the tube that’s enclosed.

“Then they have you screw on the secondary cap that has a preservative. You’ll mix that up and put the Vault tube in a pre-packaged mailing envelope that will go back to Vault. Then within 24 to 48 hours, you’ll get your result as either negative or positive,” Marsh said.

Test results can be delivered via phone, text message or email, he said.

The test kits from Vault use a polymerase chain reaction test, Crouch said.

“This is a PCR test — this is the gold standard,” he said. “The accuracy of this test should be comparable to other PCR tests out there and those that we’re doing in the drive-in lanes.”

Officials plan to open the in-home testing program to the general public and monitor the response, Justice said.

“I think the whole concept right now is just to see what the response level is and see that we have dollars to be able to handle that,” the governor said.

There are no plans to place limits on who can request an in-home test kit, such as limiting the program to senior citizens or people confined to their homes, Crouch said.

“We’re going to have to monitor this and see how it goes,” he said. “There’s no limitations in terms of age or individuals who can access those tests. It’s available to anyone online right now who chooses to use that option. We want West Virginians to test. It’s how we fight this disease right now. That and masks.”

Also Wednesday, Justice said the state is expected to receive its first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer on Dec. 14.

“You’re going to have that sometime at the tail end of next week or the first day of the next week,” he said. “Right behind that, a week later you’re going to have Moderna step up and you’re going to start getting their vaccine roll in then.

“In addition to that, Pfizer’s vaccine will continue on a weekly basis every week, and it will continue to grow, as Moderna will continue to grow.”

The vaccination process, which will start with health-care workers, will likely go on throughout much of next year, Marsh said.

“We’ll have early doses in December, but we will be vaccinating people through the mid part to even perhaps the third quarter or beyond of 2021 to get everybody an opportunity to be vaccinated,” he said.

Early reports indicate the vaccines from both Pfizer and Moderna are “very safe and extremely effective,” Marsh said.

“We know that these vaccines are very important, but the vaccine alone is not what’s important,” he said. “It’s getting people vaccinated.”