Gov. Jim Justice announced a new initiative to provide a $150 school voucher to West Virginians raising their grandchildren if they get vaccinated.
“If you’re a grandfamily and the grandparents have been vaccinated and you’ll just help us get the kids across the finish line, we’ll give you $150,” Justice said.
Registration starts next Tuesday, the governor said.
More information was provided by the Healthy Grandfamilies program.
Bonnie Dunn, director of West Virginia State University’s Healthy Grandfamilies program, said a greater rate of vaccinations should help the many West Virginia grandparents raising their grandchildren. She said the number of children in those families adds up to about 19,000.
Dunn noted that age group is often susceptible to chronic illness such as diabetes, heart disease and hypertension.
“What if our grandparents began dying off due to covid because they didn’t get vaccinated?” Dunn asked. She added, “Our whole goal is to encourage our grandfamilies to get the family as a whole vaccinated. We want you to stay happy and healthy and well so you can continue to raise these grandchildren until they become functioning adult citizens.
Justice echoed the need to keep both children and grandparents healthy.
“These kids, at the school or wherever they may be could very well be bringing this right back to the grandparents,” Justice said.
West Virginia’s best vaccination rate, 80 percent, is for residents ages 65 and up.
Seventy-two percent of residents ages 50 and up are considered fully vaccinated.
The number goes down among younger age groups.
Of the vaccine-eligible population ages 12 and older, 58.5 percent are considered fully vaccinated.
“We have got to get more and more and more of our people vaccinated,” Justice said.
West Virginia’s covid-19 cases have been increasing steadily, fueled by the delta variant. Today, the state registered 16,372 cases.
James Hoyer, the director of the state’s joint interagency task force, called the initiative an important step toward protecting families.
“We will work hard to work with those groups to make sure we get more grandfamilies vaccinated,” Hoyer said.