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Coronavirus

State pushes for data and booster shots

CHARLESTON — West Virginia is continuing to push for a “Battlefield Booster Assessment” program that could lead to an additional COVID vaccination for state residents. The program was discussed during Gov. Jim Justice’s briefing with reporters on Wednesday. The Battlefield Assessment Program would be an opportunity for those over age 60 — vaccinated against COVID for more than six months — to volunteer to have their blood drawn and have their antibody levels measured. The data would be used to assess the need for COVID booster shots. Justice said he met with Joint ...

Justice: No mask mandates for schools

CHARLESTON — Gov. Jim Justice and state health officials said Tuesday they see nothing to warrant imposing statewide mask mandates on West Virginia’s K-12 schools or colleges and universities even with the risk of the Delta COVID-19 variant. “As of this moment in time right now, I don’t see any reason to move forward or change course from where we are,” Justice said Tuesday afternoon during his COVID-19 briefing at the State Capitol Building. “I think we’ve made phenomenal progress and it is an individual choice at this point and time.” This week, the American ...

Justice hands out third $1M prize in vaccine giveaway

CHARLESTON (AP) — West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice handed out the third $1 million prize for residents who have received coronavirus vaccines. The Republican governor presented Heather Coburn of Princeton with a ceremonial check on Wednesday. Coburn happens to work at a Bluefield car ...

Randolph COVID numbers hold steady

ELKINS — Local health officials reported on Tuesday that active COVID-19 case numbers held steady in Randolph County for a second straight week, once again just missing out on a return to single digits. “We’re getting close to getting back to single digits, so things are looking good,” Bonnie Woodrum, the Randolph Elkins Health Department’s infectious disease specialist, told The Inter-Mountain Tuesday. “We had several people come off quarantine and we will have more on Wednesday, but right now we are steady at 13 active cases. For two weeks in a row now we’ve been ...

2021 EHS graduate receives Civil Air Patrol scholarship

CHARLESTON — More than a million West Virginians have at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, contributing to the continual decrease in active cases, hospitalizations and deaths, Gov. Jim Justice said on Tuesday. According to the state Department of Health and Human Resources, 1,005,135 eligible West Virginians age 12 and older have at least one dose of the two-dose Pfizer and Moderna vaccines as of Tuesday, making up 64.5 percent of all eligible residents. “I congratulate everyone who has played a role in getting us to this point, but we still have more work to do,” Justice ...

70K register for vaccine sweepstakes

CHARLESTON — About 70,000 residents have so far registered for the COVID-19 vaccination sweepstakes in West Virginia, the governor said on Tuesday. The incentive to encourage residents to get vaccinated against the plague includes the chance to win money, trucks, get-aways in West Virginia, scholarships and hunting rifles and shotguns. The first drawing is on June 20, Fathers’ Day and West Virginia’s birthday. “On Fathers’ Day, we’ll make somebody in West Virginia a millionaire,” Gov. Jim Justice, whose pet English bulldog, Babydog, is the face of the promotion. About ...