CHARLESTON, W.Va. — “Our top three priorities continue to be vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate.”
That is what retired Maj. Gen. James Hoyer, the director of the state Joint Interagency Task Force on COVID-19 Vaccines, said at the start of the first full week of April as coronavirus vaccinations efforts continued to expand across the Mountain State.
“We are working aggressively with retailers, manufacturers, churches and others to ensure that we build additional capacity to get into communities and get as many people as possible vaccinated,” Hoyer said.
Additionally, Hoyer said coordination with local officials began last week to launch school-based vaccinations for people age 16 and older in four counties.
This week, those efforts are moving to 12 counties and 14 others were to follow next week.
Part of the motivation for that was that more than 100 COVID cases in West Virginia involving the coronavirus variant first identified in the United Kingdom had been confirmed as of Monday.
“This U.K. variant is making children sick, is making young adults sick, is making 30 to 40 years old sick, putting people in the hospital. It’s different,” said Dr. Clay Marsh, vice president and executive dean of health sciences at West Virginia University.
There were also confirmed cases of the separate variant initially found in California.
“The real question of whether those variants take hold and become really dangerous to all of us is really up to all of us,” Dr. Marsh said.
Gov. Jim Justice agreed.
He said in the early days of April there was “a new sense of urgency” for vaccinations.
“If, in fact, this variant is attacking the younger folks, as the COVID-19 did (previously) to our older folks, then you’ve got to get vaccinated, that’s just all there is to it,” the Governor said during his Monday coronavirus briefing.
“So many side effects and things can happen here but, without any question whatsoever, you’ve got to get vaccinated.”
Doctor Ayne Amjad, the state health officer, said most of the current 53 COVID outbreaks reported in schools in West Virginia were linked to sports teams.
“We have not seen many school outbreaks that are in the classroom right now and that is because of mitigation efforts with students wearing masks and also the teachers and a lot of the school personnel have been vaccinated which is a good sign,” Dr. Amjad said.
As for corrections cases, as of Monday morning, the state Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation was reporting 52 active COVID cases among inmates in state prisons, regional jails, correctional centers and juvenile facilities.
Sixteen of the 52 cases were at the South Central Regional Jail, 13 at the Southern Regional and 21 at the Salem Correctional Center.
Positives among staff members stood at ten statewide.
Hoyer said vaccination efforts continued within correctional facilities following an established priority list which included age and system destination.
“That effort is, in fact, underway and moving forward under the direction of Corrections with doses being provided by the Interagency Task Force,” he said.