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CHARLESTON, WV – Gov. Jim Justice and members of the West Virginia COVID-19 pandemic response leadership team held another news briefing today to update the public on the state’s latest pandemic response and vaccine distribution efforts.
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WEST VIRGINIA SURPASSES 7,000 COVID DEATHS AS CASE NUMBERS DECREASE SLIGHTLY
During his briefing Monday, Gov. Justice announced that West Virginia has now surpassed 7,000 COVID-19-related deaths.
“This is a milestone that none of us wanted to hit,” Gov. Justice said. “It’s just hard to fathom. You think of all the tough things we’ve seen on the news over the years, it’s a drop in the bucket compared to this.
“Over 7,000 great West Virginians we’ve lost. I ask for your prayers for every single one of them.”
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Despite the tragic milestone, case numbers have continued their slow decline in recent weeks, dropping to 1,989 on Monday, marking their first day under 2,000 since May 17. Cases have declined by 283 since the Governor’s previous briefing on Wednesday last week.
COVID-19 Dashboard | Coronavirus.wv.gov
An updated breakdown of the West Virginia County Alert Map is as follows:
Red (0) | Orange (0) | Gold (0) | Yellow (18) | Green (37)
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Later in the briefing, State Health Officer Dr. Ayne Amjad announced that certain elements of the COVID-19 Dashboard are being updated to improve accuracy, including the vaccine dose distribution table and data on variant cases.
“You’ll see some updated numbers on our COVID dashboard with the variant cases as we continue to monitor and improve our data,” Dr. Amjad said. “The number of Delta variant cases are going to decrease by 634. The number of Omicron variant cases are going to decrease by 364. These are still COVID cases, however, they’re not associated with Delta and Omicron. When the algorithm from matching variant labs to cases was developed, we did not see a significant amount of reinfections among our population. So those numbers matched older labs with the new cases. This has since been corrected, and we’ll continue to monitor those numbers.”
Primary series vaccinations and a first booster dose are now encouraged for all West Virginians ages 5 and older.
A second booster dose is encouraged for all West Virginians ages 50 and older who are at least four months removed from their first booster dose, as well as certain immunocompromised individuals. All West Virginians who qualify can get a second booster dose everywhere vaccines are available.
The state’s free COVID-19 Vaccination Due Date Calculator – the only tool of its kind in the nation – has been updated to determine whether people are eligible for a second booster dose.
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GOV. JUSTICE ANNOUNCES FIRST THREE ECONOMIC ENHANCEMENT GRANT RECIPIENTS AWARDED OVER $12.8 MILLION
Additionally Monday, Gov. Justice announced that, less than two months after calling a Special Session of the West Virginia Legislature to secure $250 million for the newly established Economic Enhancement Grant Fund, the program’s first grant recipients have been awarded a combined $12.8 million for a trio of water and wastewater infrastructure projects across the state.
“The idea was to put together a fund to help leverage federal dollars for localities where people have exhausted every single possibility of what they could do to get a water or sewer project done in their communities,” Gov. Justice said. “We know, all across this state, we still have a lot of people that need clean water. We’ve still got all kinds of wastewater projects to do. These projects should have been done decades ago. But now, we have the funding in place to do them right now.
“I thank the Legislature for putting that $250 million aside for us to be able to do these projects. Now, here we go.”
Click here to view recipients / read more
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WVDEP’S BROWNFIELD REVOLVING FUND PROGRAM PROVIDES FIRST LOW-INTEREST LOAN TO CITY OF WHEELING
Also on Monday, Gov. Justice announced that one of the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection's (WVDEP) newest funding programs is moving forward with its first project.
The WVDEP’s Brownfield Revolving Fund (BRF) has provided its first low-interest loan to the City of Wheeling to help remediate and redevelop the former Penn-Wheeling Closure site.
Established in August 2020, the BRF is designed to assist local governments, nonprofits, and private sector businesses to clean up properties contaminated by petroleum or hazardous substances, known as brownfields.
“This is good stuff. It makes our communities better in every way,” Gov. Justice said. “I commend the DEP and all the great work they’re doing under Secretary Ward. It’s an exciting announcement for the City of Wheeling. We want to just keep pouring it on all across the state and keep doing more projects like this.”
Click here to read more
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