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CHARLESTON -- West Virginia could have two milestones to celebrate on June 20: the state's 158th birthday and getting 65 percent of the state's eligible residents partially vaccinated against COVID-19.
Speaking during his Tuesday COVID-19 briefing at the Capitol, Gov. Jim Justice said West Virginia is 8 percent away from reaching the 65-percent goal.
"We're going to get there," Justice said. "What we're interested in achieving by June 20 is to get as close as we possibly can. We may be at 63.8 or 64.49 or whatever, but we're going to get as close as we possibly can to 65 percent of all of our eligible population to at least have one dose … we've got 8 percent to go."
According to the Department of Health and Human Resources, 57 percent of the 1.6 million eligible residents age 12 and older have been partially vaccinated with either the first dose of the two-dose Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines as of Tuesday.
Several weeks ago, Justice set a goal of getting 65 percent of eligible residents vaccinated by June 20, West Virginia's birthday. June 20 is also when Justice's indoor mask executive order for unvaccinated people will be rescinded. The indoor mask order was already rescinded for fully vaccinated people, leaving it up to businesses to decide to require masks or not.
"We're moving at a really positive pace there," Justice said. "We're through with these masks on June 20. We're through with them right now if you've been vaccinated. With all of that being said, we're on track and you just wait and see. The numbers will prove me right on this one. At the end of the day, we're going to get rid of these masks on June 20. Period."
To date, 82.9 percent of the state's population aged 65 and older have at least one vaccine dose -- close to hitting a goal of 85 percent for that age population. But much of the vaccine focus over the last few weeks has turned to eligible children and young adults.
Right now, only people aged 12 and older can take the Pfizer vaccine, while people 16 and older can take the Moderna vaccine. According to the New York Times, Moderna will submit its vaccine for emergency authorization in June, citing data that the Moderna vaccine is safe and effective for children between the ages of 12 and 17.
Young people between the ages of 10 and 19 make up the largest number of new COVID-19 infections over the last seven days, followed by young adults between the ages of 20 and 29. Health officials remain concerned that young people have a greater risk of asymptomatic infections, becoming super-spreaders to more susceptible people.
Last week, Justice opened the online portal for residents aged 16-to-35 to apply for either a $100 prepaid gift card or a $100 savings bond if they can show they've been vaccinated. Justice estimated that approximately 18,000 residents have applied at governor.wv.gov for the vaccine incentive program.
COVID-19 cases have continued a slow and steady decline since last week. According to DHHR, there are 5,341 active COVID-19 cases in West Virginia as of Monday, down from 5,983 active cases seven days ago. Hospitalizations remain steady with 232 hospitalizations Monday, up from 210 hospitalizations seven days ago. The state reported seven COVID-19 deaths Tuesday.