Gov. Jim Justice, who has been adamantly opposed to reimposing business closures and stay-at-home orders, said Monday that, with COVID-19 infection rates surging in some parts of West Virginia, he might take “pinpoint action” in those counties.
“We may have to go in and make some additional modifications to get a grip on this thing,” Justice said of potential additional restrictions in high-spread counties. “Everything has to be on the table.”
He cited Mineral County, where the seven-day rolling average of new cases is over 200 per 100,000 population — nearly 10 times the 25 cases per 100,000 the Harvard Global Health Institute has determined constitutes extreme virus spread that requires instituting stay-at-home orders.
“On the Harvard map, if you have 25 [cases], you are red, and they’ve got in excess of 200 [cases],” Justice said.
Governors in the neighboring states of Ohio and Kentucky have responded to the current surge in COVID-19 cases by imposing new restrictions, including curfews, halting in-school instruction in public and private schools, and banning indoor dining at restaurants. Justice has been reluctant to act, though, saying that closing schools and businesses will cause more harm than good.
Most recently, Justice has ordered the expansion of a face-mask mandate he imposed in July — an order that has drawn considerable criticism, including objections from Attorney General Patrick Morrisey — and has pushed back the start of winter scholastic sports until Jan. 11, 2021, at the earliest.
On Monday, Justice also called on West Virginians to limit Thanksgiving gatherings to immediate family and to postpone holiday travel.
“We depend on you to be able to make these decisions,” he said of encouraging but not ordering these actions. “You see, our people are smart in West Virginia.”
Dr. Clay Marsh, the state’s COVID-19 czar and vice president for health sciences at West Virginia University, agreed that additional actions might be necessary but, like Justice, did not specify what might need to be done.
“In some areas, COVID is spreading fast enough that perhaps some focused and precise strategies will need to be done,” Marsh said.
Also Wednesday:
- Justice announced that state National Guard Adj. Gen. James Hoyer will retire from the Guard at the end of the year and has accepted a position as a vice president at WVU.
Hoyer, a major general who said he is approaching the mandatory retirement age of 60 for National Guard officers, said he will continue to serve on Justice’s COVID-19 response team.
“I’m not leaving the leadership team. I’m just changing uniforms, thanks to you and Dr. Gee,” Hoyer said, referring to WVU President Gordon Gee.
Justice did not say if the WVU position was specifically created for Hoyer or what his salary will be.
Justice announced that Brig. Gen. Bill Crane will become the adjutant general, effective Jan. 4.
- Justice said Morrisey’s criticism of his enhanced face-mask mandate “has the politics smell all over it.”
After Justice expanded the mandate to require masks at all times in public buildings, Morrisey said on social media that he opposes punishment for violators, saying, “No one impinges upon our constitutionally protected freedoms.”
On Monday, Justice said he was “damned disappointed” in Morrisey’s comments, which he said are divisive at a time when the state needs to be unified in the pandemic fight.
Justice said the mandate is a matter of taking reasonable steps to protect public safety, comparable to drunk-driving laws, not an impingement of constitutional rights.
“It has nothing to do with our constitutional liberties,” the governor said. “It has nothing to do with taking your guns or anything like that.”
Justice dismissed a West Virginia Supreme Court ruling
- Friday that rejected his claim that the constitutional mandate requiring the governor to live in Charleston is discretionary, calling the matter “trivial.”
Justice, who has made no secret that he lives in Lewisburg and not in the seat of government, as the constitution requires, insisted Monday that he works harder and puts in longer hours than his predecessors, whom he said have hosted parties at the Governor’s Mansion “every other night” and “worked from Monday through Thursday.”
“That’s probably the last thing we need to worry about or attend to right now,” Justice said of being compelled to live in Charleston.
In rejecting the governor’s motion for a writ of prohibition, the Supreme Court sent the case back to Kanawha County Circuit Court, but effectively demolished Justice’s argument that the residency requirement in the state constitution is at the governor’s discretion.
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