Gov. Jim Justice speaks to the press and public through video livestream from the State Capitol Building Friday. (Photo courtesy of the WV Governor’s Office)

CHARLESTON — Even though full details of West Virginia’s plans for reopening the state’s economy while weighing the continued risks from the coronavirus won’t be released until next week, Gov. Jim Justice vowed Friday to not follow the example of Georgia by reopening too quickly.

Justice gave a sneak peek at some of his reopening plans during his Friday daily coronavirus briefing at the Capitol.

“Everybody is yearning toward how we’re going to move and transition and keep the balancing act going as we transition to how we are going to reopen, how we are going to get the engine running again,” Justice said. “It will have to run differently until…we come up with a vaccine that enables us to go back to the way we were, which all of us want to be able to do.”

The first part of Justice’s plan to re-start the state was revealed earlier this week in an executive order allowing hospitals to open back up for elective medical procedures. Starting Tuesday, hospitals will be able to apply for approval from the Department of Health and Human Resources to resume elective procedures. Hospitals will have to develop plans for care, as well as show they have enough personal protective equipment and access to a supply of PPE.

“We’ve got to get our hospitals up and running,” Justice said. “We’ve got to get our elective procedures back into our hospitals to where our hospitals have life blood to be able to really move and move forward.”

Justice ordered that all elective procedures be halted in an executive order April 1, but hospitals around the nation have suffered financially as focus has turned to preventing the spread of COVID-19 and from overtopping hospital intensive care units. But without the elective procedures, hospitals have hemorrhaged money.

A few days after Justice’s executive order, the Mountain Health Network which owns Cabell Huntington Hospital and the Thomas Health System in Kanawha County announced layoffs.

“There is an excess of 25 percent of the economic impact to our state lies somewhere in our health care industry,” Justice said.

The next component of Justice’s reopening plan would involve daycare centers, especially for front-line medical workers. Justice said that would involve mandatory ongoing coronavirus testing of daycare employees. State officials are also looking into the legalities of mandatory temperature checks of children and parents who would enter daycare facilities.

“You have a lot of people working at those hospitals throughout our state who need daycare,” Justice said. “We want to get all of our daycare facilities up and running again.”

Justice said a concern that could hold the state back is the amount of PPE available to the general public. The availability of masks could affect when state officials decide to allow restaurants to re-open for dine-in services.

Another concern is the availability of testing. The state has ramped up its testing by 56 percent over the last seven days. The Department of Health and Human Resources and the West Virginia National Guard started testing 28,000 nursing home residents and staff this week, which will be finished up by the end of April. Testing of additional at-risk populations will likely be next on the agenda. A partnership with LabCorp is helping with increased testing capacity and turnaround time for results.

“This is a 35-piece puzzle,” Justice said. “I truly believe that I know maybe two or three of the 35 pieces, but nobody knows all the pieces. This thing is constantly fluid and constantly moving, and that’s why we’re dealing with a pandemic no one in our lifetimes have ever dealt with before.”

Justice said the further information about the state’s reopening plans will be released Monday and Tuesday of next week. Justice was adamant about not opening things too quickly.

“We’re going to have real live plans on what to do, but as we go forward we’re not going to run and cannonball in the middle of the pool and awaken to the fact the poll didn’t have any water in it and we have a real severe problem. We’re going to try every way we possibly can to protect you and move forward.”

Other states are working on their own reopening plans, with some states – such as Texas, Tennessee, and Georgia – planning to do a wide re-open. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp took heat this week for announcing the re-opening of gyms, bowling alleys, and hair salons by President Donald Trump even though multiple outlets have reported Kemp previously had Trump’s blessing. Justice echoed Trump’s criticism of Kemp.

“We don’t want to get out on a limb and be as absurd as, I think, Georgia is trying to be,” Justice said. “Georgia has left even following guidelines of where our President wants us to go.”

Steven Allen Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com.