With COVID continuing to be a problem and the possibility of a more severe flu season this year, state officials are urging residents to get the Omicron booster shot as well as a flu shot.
“It could be a bad flu season,” Gov. Jim Justice said during his pandemic briefing Monday, saying as the weather gets colder and more people gather indoors, chances of spreading the flu as well as COVID increase.
Dr. Ayne Amjad, state Health Officer, said everyone should take precautions.
“It is going to be a bad flu season based on trends we are seeing across the world,” she said.
For example, the AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) reported that Australia, which is just now coming out of its flu season, saw the worst one in five years, and it arrived earlier than usual.
Amjad said those 12 and older should get the Omicron booster, and everyone should get a flu shot.
“They can get both at the same time,” she said, with shots in separate arms.
Justice also said state hospitals are seeing steady numbers of COVID patients as people continue to get sick, and some die.
He read three new deaths over the weekend, including a 43-year-old Mercer County man.
The statewide COVID death toll stood at 7,367 on Monday.
Retired Maj. Gen. James Hoyer, director of the Joint InterAgency Task Force, said the 298 COVID patients in state hospitals is ‘manageable,” but that number should be “drawn down” as the flu season approaches. Hospitalizations have been hovering around 300 or so for weeks.
“Please get out and get that booster,” he said, adding that anyone 12 and older is eligible as long as they have had the first two Pfizer or Moderna shots.
The Omicron booster is designed more specifically to provide stronger immunity against the dominant BA.4 and 5 variants, especially protection from severe symptoms and hospitalization.
“We don’t want to stress our hospitals and push them to the limit,” Justice said. “We know how tough that can get. We don’t know how this thing is going to turn.”
Hoyer also agreed with Justice that the pandemic is not over.
Justice was responding to a question related to Pres. Joe Biden’s weekend statement that “the pandemic is over.”
“It is not over,” he said. “It is absolutely not over.”
On another topic, Justice responded to a question on the number of companies moving into the state that are related to green energy.
During a recent special session, the Legislature passed the Certified Industrial Business Expansion Development Program, within the Department of Economic Development, “to encourage the continued development, construction, operation, maintenance, and expansion in West Virginia of high impact industrial plants and facilities, in certain circumstances where the availability of electricity generated from renewable sources is demonstrated to be necessary.”
Justice said the bill was necessary to make way for BHE (Berkshire Hathaway Energy) Renewables, a $500 million project in Ravenswood which will be a first-of-its-kind renewable energy microgrid-powered industrial site.
Precision Castparts Corp. (“PCC”), a Berkshire Hathaway Inc. business, will be the first company to locate on the site and will develop a state-of-the-art titanium melt facility that will use 100 percent renewable energy to manufacture titanium products for the aerospace and other industries.
That was the latest in a string of new industries locating in the state that are embracing renewable energy.
“We want to be smart,” Justice said. “We want to promote coal and natural gas … We still support fossil fuels.”
But Justice said all forms of energy should be embraced and they bring economic development and jobs to the state.
— Contact Charles Boothe at cboothe@bdtonline.com
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