Gov. Jim Justice laid responsibility for record number of COVID-19 hospitalizations, patients in intensive care units and on ventilators at the feet of those who have not yet received the vaccine during today’s press briefing.

 

“This is a disease of the unvaccinated and a lot of people don’t like hearing me say that,” said Justice. “… We’re very hopeful we’re going to reach a peak and we’re going to turn the other way, but we’re not there yet are we. If you’re not vaccinated and you’ve not had COVID, you’re running a big risk.”

 

Justice added that the “overwhelming” number of individuals in the hospital and the are those who will not get a vaccine. He showed a graphic showing 84.8 percent of the individuals – 745 – are unvaccinated. In the ICU, 90.6 percent – 242 individuals – are unvaccinated, according to the graphics shown by Justice.

 

“If you have chosen to be unvaccinated it was, in my opinion, a bad choice. It was your choice,” said Justice, who added that President Biden’s call for businesses mandating employee vaccinations is wrong. “… We don’t need mandates, but we do need good decisions.”

 

Even with a the hour-long press conference featuring Justice and others on the panel pleading for individuals to get the vaccine, he said it may not do any good.

 

Justice provided numbers on school outbreaks. He said there are 87 in 33 counties with 677 confirmed cases. He said seven schools are closed and one county – Preston. Justice added only Putnam and Pocahontas Counties currently do not have a mask mandate in their school systems.

 

As for the hospital numbers, retired Major General Jim Hoyer who heads up the Joint Interagency Task Force, reported new numbers that are all records. Currently, there are 893 hospital patients, 275 in the intensive care unit, and 160 on ventilators.

 

Hoyer said the “significant majority” of those were unvaccinated. He also had concerning news regarding hospitalizations.

 

“West Virginia hospitals have received calls from other states as far away as North Carolina asking if we can take on critically ill patients,” said Hoyer, who said there is not the capacity to do that. “Should (West Virginia hospitals) get to the capacity point, which we’re close to, we’re likely not going to have the ability to transfer patients to other states.”

 

Hoyer also addressed how the state will handle the distribution of booster shots, which could have approval as early as Monday.

 

“It’s all about contingency planning since we don’t know when they will give us the official go ahead,” said Hoyer.

 

Hoyer said nursing homes and assisted living facilities in the state will be first. He said the state will be working with each county through county partnerships to address the distribution.

 

Justice reported there were 76 outbreaks in long-term care facilities and the number of church outbreaks were down to three – none locally. In the state’s prisons, Justice said there are 210 inmates COVID positive in 11 facilities and 49 staff members in 21 facilities.

 

Justice started the press briefing with the latest report on the number of deaths.

 

“As I told you on Monday, a lot more people are going to die,” said Justice, who then said mandating masks are penalizing some and that’s not convinced that it’s not going to help. He then praised school systems for using masks in the state.

 

After his commentary, he began reading the counties, ages, and genders of those who have died since Monday’s press briefings. There are now 3,296 deaths as a result of COVID-19 in West Virginia. A total of 58 have been added to the list of those who have passed since Monday’s press event, several of those deaths, however, were reconciliation deaths that were reported well after the individual’s had passed.

 

“It’s unbelievable; totally unbelievable,” said Justice.