CHARLESTON, W.Va. — As active COVID-19 cases in West Virginia continued to remain above the 2,000 mark following the July 4 holiday, Gov. Jim Justice is not pleased with the amount of new positive cases being added.
Justice said during his coronavirus briefing Tuesday that 1,995 new positive cases have been added in West Virginia since Friday. He continued to urge West Virginians to get vaccinated and receive a booster shot if its their time to do so.
“When we’re sitting here telling you over, over and over that this isn’t gone and this is highly contagious, how smart is it to have been vaccinated and not go get your booster shot,” the governor said.
According to the state Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) dashboard, 54.8% of West Virginians (982,690) have received two doses of a vaccine and 53% of those citizens (520,896) have received booster doses.
The DHHR on Tuesday reported 2,150 active cases. The active case total has been above 2,000 since June 27. Five new deaths were reported, bringing the death total to 7,069.
DHHR has confirmed the deaths of a 92-year old female from Kanawha County, a 55-year old female from Kanawha County, a 73-year old female from Randolph County, an 86-year old female from Clay County, and a 95-year old female from Jackson County.
During the coronavirus briefing, state coronavirus czar Dr. Clay Marsh said West Virginia is dealing with the omicron variant of COVID-19.
“We know that this variant is very, has the super power to evade the immune response that people may have had if they had been infected with previous variants,” Marsh said.
The next coronavirus briefing for Justice and his COVID-19 response is scheduled to be on Thursday.