New data shows West Virginia doing better on boosters, with more than 222,000 given

During Gov. Jim Justice’s COVID press briefing Tuesday, he and members of his pandemic leadership team discussed the new figure, which is also broken down by age groups.

Justice was quick to emphasize that despite the elevated figure, many more West Virginians need to get their boosters, a point reiterated by both Dr. Clay Marsh, the state’s COVID-19 czar, and James Hoyer, director of the Joint Interagency Task Force, which coordinates the state’s vaccination efforts.

The governor discussed in detail the state’s hospitalization data, and how current trends indicate the need for more vaccinations, including more boosters.

Following a surge last winter — the worst bout of the pandemic up to that point — the recovery saw most metrics fall about as low as they could. The majority of the County Alert map was green, active and daily case reports were hitting drastic lows, and the state’s hospitalization numbers were down to levels not seen since the earliest days of the pandemic.

At their lowest points of 2021, the number of residents hospitalized for COVID fell to 52, the number in intensive care units was 17 and the number of patients on ventilators was six.

Since then, the state saw another surge over the summer and fall, caused by the spread of the Delta variant of the COVID virus. While levels got just as bad, and in some cases worse, than the winter surge, the state has been on the downswing from that surge since about mid- to late-September.

But while the recovery started off quick, with metrics falling rapidly, the improvement has slowed to the point where many metrics have effectively plateaued.

For COVID hospitalizations, Tuesday’s report from DHHR shows 561 hospitalized, 181 in ICUs and 96 on ventilators.

In light of the continually elevated hospital metrics, Gov. Justice asked two questions during the briefing.

“What’s going to happen when winter comes?” he asked. “What’s going to happen if we have another surge?”

Dr. Marsh said the Delta surge “tested our hospital capacity to its absolute limit.” The pair said the best way to ensure the state’s hospitals remain fully operational is to get more residents vaccinated and boosted.

“We know that to protect our hospitals, to maintain the patient flow, to be able to offer people the best care in West Virginia, we absolutely need to act immediately — as the governor said, run to the fire — and if you haven’t been fully vaccinated, get vaccinated,” Marsh said. “But more importantly for older West Virginians who have gotten vaccinated, please go get your booster. That is critical not only to protecting our hospitals, but to protecting you.”

Hoyer pointed to the new booster data, saying that even the newly reported 222,000 booster doses represent only a fraction of those who could get them.

For the age 65 and older population, 78.7% are fully vaccinated. But for the same age group, only 31.8% have received a booster.

For the 50 and older age group — which includes the 65-plus group — 71% are fully vaccinated, while just 23.9% have received boosters.

Officials have pushed the need for boosters as research has indicated a decrease in vaccine efficacy after about six months. West Virginia officials have said the percentage of hospitalized COVID patients that are fully vaccinated — about 24% as of Tuesday — indicates that waning efficacy.

All Americans are eligible to receive a booster six months after completing a two-dose mRNA vaccine regiment (Pfizer or Moderna) or two months after getting the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Hoyer also expressed the need for more initial vaccinations, particularly for the 5-17 age group.

“The other number that we would like to highlight is that only 25.2% of West Virginians age 5-17 have received a first dose of the vaccine,” Hoyer said.

Hoyer said all this data shows many more West Virginians need to get booster doses.

“What (the new booster data) continues to show us is West Virginians over age 50 are not taking the booster dose fast enough based on (Dr. Marsh’s comments),” he said.

“It is nowhere close to where we in West Virginia need to be going into the winter months and what we could potentially encounter with the new variant coming forward.”

In other COVID-19 news:

— DHHR reported Tuesday the active case count was 5,800. While this is a decrease from Monday’s report, the metric has seen significant fluctuation over the past several days, being as high as 7,001 on Wednesday and as low as 4,501 on Thursday.

The count is one metric that effectively plateaued for much of November, generally hovering between 6,000 and 7,000.

— DHHR reported 31 new COVID-19 related deaths Tuesday morning, bringing the state’s overall total to 4,868.

“Protect your loved ones by scheduling a COVID vaccine or booster,” said DHHR Cabinet Secretary Bill J. Crouch. “Both are available at clinics, pharmacies, local health departments and pop-up events statewide.”