West Virginia Strong: The Comeback continues to roll along, with summer youth camps allowed to resume on June 22, Gov. Jim Justice announced Monday.
On the same date, youth sports games and other outdoor sports games, along with outdoor equestrian events, will be allowed to resume with spectators, he said.
On July 1, open-air concerts along with fairs and festivals may get underway.
Justice said the whitewater rafting industry has been urging him to raise the passenger limit on rafts because high waters require more people in the rafts for safety. Justice said he’s decided to abide by their request and raise the limit but didn’t say what the new number will be. The current maximum is six passengers and one guide.
Asked about when revised guidelines for hospital and nursing home visitation might be announced, Justice said there have been several discussions about it. He hopes to have some guidelines and possible dates to announce on Wednesday.
The Dominion Post asked a question based on some conversations with readers who are skeptical or even cynical about the pandemic and the nationwide reopening. They said they see the inconsistency between states on the pace of their reopenings, and inconsistency among medical experts about when it’s appropriate to wear masks and other PPE.
In the face of that, they wonder how real the pandemic is, and The Dominion Post asked Justice his thoughts on how to respond to that.
He said science has shown we are easily conditioned to cling to a certain thought.
“Our conditioning from time to time can lead us to horrendously bad decisions.”
More than 110,000 Americans have already died, he said. West Virginia has been somewhat immune because of the great work of the medical experts and the comparatively few cases and deaths.
But make no mistake, he said. The pandemic is very real.
“Let’s absolutely not drift into, ‘This is the lunar landing that never happened.’ You’ve got to be kidding me. … If we had not reacted, and all we had done was say, ‘Oh no, it’s not even real,’ how many would have lost their lives? Millions? A few hundred thousand more? This has been real. It has not been any fun. It has been tough on all of us … Let’s absolutely not drift into Monday morning quarterbacking.”
Justice took some time to talk about the weekly state governors’ call with Vice President Pence. He used it as an opportunity to promote the miracle of West Virginia, he said.
“We don’t have oceans or great lakes on our borders,” he said he told Pence and the other governors. Instead, we are surrounded by hotbeds of the virus. We’ve had just 84 deaths, a comparatively low positive rate, and the economy remains solid.
“We are the example of exactly the goodness that has come. We are the very place that all of you should come to” to live and set up a business.
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