CHARLESTON, W.Va. – During Thursday’s virtual COVID-19 briefing, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice and state officials explained why the state’s vaccination rate has dropped in recent weeks.
A data reconciliation was recently completed, dropping West Virginia’s percentage of fully vaccinated residents to just below 50%. That reconciliation cleared up discrepancies caused by things like patients having their names entered, slightly differently on each dose they received, Ret. Maj. Gen. Jim Hoyer explained.
Numbers dropped by tens of thousands of doses as a result of the reconciliation.
On the vaccination topic, Justice and state officials continued to push for more younger people to get initial doses and older residents to get booster shots.
“We have way too few people getting booster doses in West Virginia and we have a highly vulnerable population, so that should be our number one priority,” said Dr. Clay Marsh, the state’s coronavirus “czar.”
At least the people who have been vaccinated previously should get their booster shots, Justice pleaded.
The governor also said that state officials will soon release a plan, in all 55 counties, aimed at getting more senior citizens their booster doses.
On a positive note, Justice mentioned the recent release that Condé Nast Traveler had named West Virginia as one of the best places to visit in 2022.
