More COVID-19 Vaccine on the Way to West Virginia as Active Cases, Hospitalizations Drop
Trending
CHARLESTON -- Gov. Jim Justice said Wednesday the state is expecting more COVID-19 vaccine deliveries from the federal government than the usual amount, thanks to President Joe Biden.
Justice said he was on a call Tuesday with Biden administration officials and the governors of other states. During that call, federal coronavirus officials said that West Virginia would receive a 20 percent increase in doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines.
The state typically receives more than 23,000 vaccine doses each week. Justice said the boost in vaccine doses should be between 2,500 and 3,000 additional vaccines each week.
"It's nowhere close to where we want it to be, but it's better," Justice said. "We're just going to continue to hope and pray that there's going to be more and more vaccines coming and everything. We could really just get everybody, that's the whole goal."
Nationally, the Biden plan to expand vaccine supply amounts to an additional 10.5 million doses. Starting Thursday, Feb. 11, the Biden administration will distribute a limited number of vaccine doses to select pharmacies across the nation.
As of Tuesday, more than 4 percent of the state's population have received both doses of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. Wednesday marked the start of vaccine clinics in all 55 counties for residents age 65 and older by appointment only. Residents are encouraged to join the state's vaccine pre-registration system at vaccinate.wv.gov or call 1-833-734-0965 to get pre-registered and receive notifications when vaccine doses are available.
For the first time since the beginning of December, active COVID-19 cases in West Virginia have dipped down below 20,000. State officials credit the aggressive vaccination strategy for helping bring down infection numbers.
"I think our vaccination strategy and the fact that we've been able to vaccinate so aggressively and target the most vulnerable of us as West Virginians -- our nursing home residents, our assisted living residents, our residents age 65 and older … it's extraordinary," said Dr. Clay Marsh, the state coronavirus czar. "Targeting this population has been a very central and key reason why we've seen a reduction of hospitalizations and deaths during the month of January."
According to DHHR, there were 19,212 active COVID-19 cases in the state as of Wednesday morning's daily report. That's the first time active cases have been that low since 19,971 active cases reported on Dec. 10, 2020.
Active cases peaked at 29,257 on Jan 10 and have dropped by 34 percent over the last 25 days. Active cases include residents in self-quarantine after testing positive for COVID-19 and patients who are hospitalized with serious coronavirus symptoms.
The drop in active cases also accompanies a drop in hospitalizations, use of intensive care unit beds, and ventilators. Daily confirmed hospitalizations dropped from a peak of 818 on Jan. 5 to 456 as of Wednesday - a 44 percent decrease in hospitalization. ICU bed utilization dropped by 41 percent from 219 on Jan. 6 to 129. Ventilator use had dropped by 47 percent from 104 on Jan. 10 to 55.