CHARLESTON — During Wednesday’s briefing, Gov. Justice reported that West Virginia remains among the national leaders in the rate of COVID-19 vaccine distribution and administration.
According to the latest vaccine numbers posted to the COVID-19 Dashboard Monday morning, West Virginia now boasts a first dose administration rate of 95.2 percent. Meanwhile, West Virginia now has a second dose administration rate of 46.8 percent, which also ranks among the best such rates in the nation.
To-date, West Virginia has administered 171,235 first doses and 46,094 second doses, totaling 217,329 doses administered overall statewide.
State officials have been made aware that West Virginia will be receiving an extra 3,700 vaccine doses next week from Moderna.
The Governor also reported that President Joe Biden announced yesterday the purchase of 200 million more vaccine doses, with increased distribution planned to go to states next week.
The U.S. will buy 100 million more doses from Pfizer and 100 million more from Moderna. The announcement also included that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will provide vaccine allocation estimates for the upcoming three weeks, as opposed to the one-week look-ahead currently in place.
The Governor went on to offer a reminder that West Virginia now has an online COVID-19 vaccine pre-registration system available to the public through vaccinate.wv.gov. On Monday, West Virginia became the first state in the nation to put this kind of system in place statewide.
The new digital tool allows West Virginians to add themselves to a list of people who are interested in being vaccinated, and will notify those who sign up about the availability of vaccine doses to help streamline vaccination efforts.
As of Wednesday morning, more than 100,000 West Virginians had already signed up to be added to the pre-registration list.
West Virginians can pre-register online or call the COVID-19 Vaccine Info Line (1-833-734-0965) to get help pre-registering.
“I encourage all West Virginians to pre-register,” Gov. Justice said. “It takes about 10 minutes to pull it off; not all day long on the phone. I hope to goodness that this is just making our lives better.”
Users will get a message after registering to confirm they are in the system, and will be sent updates regularly. The system sends texts, email, and phone calls.
The Governor added a reminder that 25 community vaccination events are being held in 17 counties across the state this week through operation “Save Our Wisdom” to serve West Virginians who are age 65 and older.
Visit vaccinate.wv.gov to view all current clinic locations and schedules.
Qualifying residents from any county in West Virginia may access an appointment at any vaccination clinic with availability, regardless of their county of residence. However, many clinics are full at this time and are utilizing waitlists. All clinics require appointments and walk-ins will not be accepted.
“Next week we will have vaccine clinics in all 55 counties,” Gov. Justice said. “This will surely help us reach out to some of the more rural areas that we’ve had trouble getting to so far.”
To-date, 76,924 West Virginians age 65 and older have received at least the 1st dose of the vaccine.
Meanwhile, at the state’s long-term care facilities, 16,770 residents and 18,379 staff members have received at least the 1st dose of the vaccine. Additional clinics for teachers and service personnel have resulted in 16,869 of these school employees receiving at least the 1st dose of the vaccine.
