Photo Courtesy of the West Virginia National Guard Members of the West Virginia National Guard conduct and participate in a COVID-19 vaccination clinic at Joint Forces Headquarters in Charleston on Jan. 13.

Photo Courtesy of the West Virginia National Guard
Members of the West Virginia National Guard conduct and participate in a COVID-19 vaccination clinic at Joint Forces Headquarters in Charleston on Jan. 13.

CHARLESTON — Officials said Monday that West Virginia’s aggressive COVID-19 vaccination efforts are helping decrease the number of hospitalizations and deaths in the state.

“We are absolutely the envy of the nation and the diamond in the rough that everyone missed,” Gov. Jim Justice said during Monday’s COVID-19 briefing at the State Capitol Building. “It will pay wonderful dividends as we go forward, but the dividends it’s paying to us is saving people’s lives right now.”

According to the Department of Health and Human Resources, 194,488 West Virginians have the first dose of either the Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines in their arms –re more than 10 percent of the state’s 1.8 million residents.

The state’s percentage of first doses administered exceeds 108 percent due to some five-dose vials containing an additional dose, allowing health officials to vaccinate more people. As of Monday, the state received 179,900 first-dose vials.

“Early on during the distribution of vaccines when we first found out about the Pfizer doses of having an additional dose in the vial, we had already — on the recommendation of our medical team and our pharmacy team — ordered additional syringes,” said James Hoyer, leader of the state joint interagency vaccine task force. “That allowed us to put that additional syringe in the ancillary kit early on until the federal ancillary kits caught up with that. In addition to that, it’s given us the extra syringe we needed for the Moderna doses.”

Another 68,392 residents — or nearly 4 percent of the state’s population — have received both doses of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. The Pfizer vaccine requires a second dose 21 days after the first dose, while the Moderna vaccine requires 28 days between the first and second dose.

As of Monday, 44,369 residents between the ages of 65 and 74 have been vaccinated, followed by 41,996 people between the ages of 75 and 84 and 41,256 people between the ages of 55 and 64. Last week, the state had completed giving the second dose of the vaccines to residents and staff of nursing homes and long-term care facilities.

The state’s focus on vaccinating seniors is starting to show results. The state saw a 47 percent decrease in hospitalizations from a peak of 818 on Jan. 5 to 438 as of Sunday. Active COVID-19 cases dropped by 31 percent, from a peak of 29.257 cases on Jan. 10 to 20,165 cases as of Sunday.

Coronavirus deaths have also decreased over the last two weeks. There were 248 deaths reported between Jan. 18 and Jan. 31 — a 38 percent decrease from the 400 deaths reported the previous 14 days. Of the 2,028 total COVID-19 deaths, residents age 60 and older account for 79 percent of those deaths.

“The clock is ticking for us to continue to very aggressively push vaccines forward in West Virginia,” said Dr. Clay Marsh, the state coronavirus czar. “The fact we’re vaccinating our nursing home residents and aggressively vaccinating our older population … focusing on those folks is important.”

State officials announced Monday that all 55 counties will have vaccination clinics for residents age 65 and older as part of Operation: Save Our Wisdom. The clinics will open starting Wednesday, Feb. 3, and continue until Saturday, Feb. 6, and are open to all residents older than age 65 regardless of county of residence.

Justice encouraged older residents interested in the vaccination clinics to visit vaccinate.wv.gov or call 1-833-734-0965 to pre-register with the state vaccination registration system. County health departments are working off of waitlists and clinics are only open for appointment only. Vaccine clinic information can also be found at vaccinate.wv.gov. Officials stress patience, as vaccine doses are limit and pre-registration does not mean immediate access.