| CHARLESTON, WV – Gov. Jim Justice joined West Virginia health leaders and other officials today for his latest daily press briefing regarding the State’s COVID-19 response. |
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STATEWIDE INDOOR FACE COVERING REQUIREMENT TO END ON WEST VIRGINIA DAY AS “CALL TO ARMS” VACCINATION INITIATIVE UNDERWAY
During Friday’s briefing, Gov. Justice announced that, after consulting with State medical experts regarding vaccination rates, the Statewide Indoor Face Covering Requirement will be lifted on the State’s 158th birthday –also known as West Virginia Day – Sunday, June 20, 2021.
“We believe that all West Virginians 12 years of age and older will be eligible to take the vaccine soon, and by June 20th, we project that 65% of all eligible West Virginians will have the first dose at that point in time, 75% of our population that’s 50 and above will have the first dose at that time, and 85% of our population that’s 65 and above will also have the first shot at that time,” Gov. Justice said. “So that’s the date we’re going to go with. It just coincides perfectly with the celebration of this absolutely incredible State on its birthday.” |
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“Naturally, it will still be your choice, when you’re in public, whether you want to have a mask on or not,” Gov. Justice continued. “But the mandate will be lifted.”
In the run up to that date, the State is beginning another push to get more West Virginians vaccinated.
“We’re going to call this our ‘Call to Arms’ initiative,” Gov. Justice said. “We need the arms to put shots into. So this is West Virginia’s ‘Call to Arms,’ and we’re going to absolutely target and achieve these things, but we need your help.”
Gov. Justice went on to say that, as part of the initiative, he is once again asking West Virginians who have already been vaccinated to ask their loved ones to be vaccinated as well, especially younger West Virginians ages 16-35 years old.
“In our ‘Call to Arms’ program, we are, once again, calling on all West Virginians to help us reach these goals of the percent of our population vaccinated with at least one shot,” said Dr. Clay Marsh, State Coronavirus Czar. “When you look across the world and look at the countries that are doing the best job of immunizing, particularly Israel, they saw a huge beneficial point of inflection when they got to 60% of their population vaccinated.
“As we target 65% of our vaccine-eligible population with at least one shot, 75% of our over 50-year-old population who’s vaccine eligible with at least one shot, and then 85% of our over 65-year-old population with at least one shot, we believe that we will then have the ability to safely to be able to remove the mask mandate,” Dr. Marsh continued. “So it is very important that we all pull the rope together…We have done very well. We’ve been a beacon for the country, and we’ll have one heck of a celebration ready to go on June 20th where, once again, we celebrate our caring and service to each other and to this great state.” |
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