Gov. Jim Justice tapped an inevitable vein during his COVID-19 briefing with reporters Wednesday morning.
He warned residents to be on guard against unauthorized individual sales of coronavirus vaccines online.
The governor said the practice, which was brought to his attention by the West Virginia Fusion Center, a state watchdog group, is fraudulent at its least – and quite possibly lethal, at its worst.
“Please don’t buy anything claiming to be the COVID vaccine on the Internet,” he said.
“It could be a vial of water. It could be something else you could get in trouble with. It’s not worth it.”
West Virginia’s inoculation rates concerning the virus are definitely worth noting, he said, using the numbers as an opening act for his State of the State Address, delivered later that evening in Charleston.
During Wednesday’s briefing, Justice reported last week showed an administration rate of 107.8% for first doses last week, with second doses at 91.2%. This is the first time we’ve achieved over 90% on second doses, he said.
As of Wednesday morning, Justice said, Mountain State residents rolled up their sleeves for 223,850 first doses 111,457 second doses.
That comes out to 335,307 doses among West Virginia’s 1.7 million residents.
In the meantime, more doses are on the way, he said.
Look for a total 7,300 doses a week funneling into Walgreens locations across the state, courtesy of the Biden administration’s federal distribution program with the national pharmacy chain.
The number 97 was also worth noting, he said.
That was the number of patients being treated in intensive care units across the state, Justice said, and Wednesday was the first day since Nov. 11 it has dipped below 100.
There are 14,076 active COVID cases in West Virginia – again a steady decline over the past 25 days – with 47 patients hospitalized on a ventilator, according to DHHR totals.
No matter those numbers, the coronavirus is working to amass the most painful totals of all, the governor said.
From the time of Monday’s briefing to the one Wednesday, another 44 West Virginians have died of COVID and its complications, including a 25-year-old Jefferson County man.
The state’s death total stood at 2,175 Wednesday.
New, more infectious variants continue to make their way to these shores, state COVID-19 czar Dr. Clay Marsh said, including the South Africa and United Kingdom strains, which are already present in neighboring Virginia and Maryland.
Marsh said not to let up on any of the pandemic protocols, including masking and social distancing.
“We know that there is a turbulent storm coming toward us,” he said.
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