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Coronavirus

Vaccination clinics to come to end

ELKINS — Local health officials announced Monday the COVID-19 mass vaccination clinics that have been held weekly at the Phil Gainer Community Center would be coming to an end as the number of confirmed cases in Randolph County has increased from 11 last week to 15 currently. The regional clinic, which has provided thousands of vaccinations for citizens from Randolph, Barbour, Tucker, Upshur, Webster and Pendleton counties, will no longer provide services after the next two weeks. And the next two clinics, which are scheduled for Thursday and April 29, will not be as long as the ...

Justice cleans up executive orders

CHARLESTON — After 12 months of dozens of executive orders in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Gov. Jim Justice announced Monday he would issue a new executive order canceling outdated executive orders and providing clarity as the pandemic continues. “It can be confusing for the public to keep track of all the different orders, so today I’m signing a new executive order that’s cleaning up and doing away with a great many of the executive orders that have been in place,” Justice said during his Monday COVID-19 briefing at the Capitol. Justice said the new executive order ...

Demand slowing for vaccinations

CHARLESTON — Gov. Jim Justice and state health officials pleaded with the public Friday to get a COVID-19 vaccine as supply of the vaccines becomes greater than the demand. “There has never been a vaccine that is this productive and this successful. Never,” Justice said. “You would almost be more prone to have a meteorite hit you in your yard than you would to draw a terrible sickness from taking the vaccines…the only way I can stop this is if you take the vaccines.” According to the Department of Health and Human Resources, nearly 27 percent of state residents are fully ...

State vaccinations nearing 500K

CHARLESTON — A total of 675,344 people have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and 480,324 people in the state have been fully vaccinated, the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources announced Thursday. Meanwhile, the total number of COVID-19 in the Mountain State during the pandemic has passed 147,000. State officials reported 393 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, bringing the total count to 147,596. The DHHR said 7,295 cases are currently active in the state. Officials also announced 16 new COVID-19 related deaths in the state Thursday. The total number ...

Pause of one-shot vaccine not affecting W.Va.

CHARLESTON — Health officials in West Virginia stressed Wednesday the state’s COVID-19 vaccination efforts are largely unaffected by the pause in the use of the one-shot Johnson and Johnson vaccine. Dr. Clay Marsh, the state coronavirus czar, said the number of Johnson and Johnson vaccines in arms pales in comparison to the number of doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines. “On the comparison level, the number of Johnson and Johnson vaccines are much smaller than the…number of vaccinations we’ve made with Pfizer and Moderna,” Marsh said. The Advisory ...

W.Va. COVID numbers return to lows

CHARLESTON — West Virginia’s COVID-19 numbers for March are a long way from the small number of cases, tests, and deaths when the pandemic first officially arrived in the state one year ago, but still lower than December and January’s peak. According to an analysis of data released by the Department of Health and Human Resources, the state saw 10,384 COVID-19 cases in March, a 5,734 percent increase from the 178 cases reported in March 2020 when DHHR reported the state’s first confirmed case of the coronavirus. Since last March, there have been a total of 142,233 COVID-19 ...