Governor urges all residents to get vaccinated

Jun. 22—CHARLESTON — During Tuesday's briefing, Gov. Jim Justice once again called on all West Virginians who have not yet been vaccinated against COVID-19 to get their shot.

"We're begging you to go get vaccinated," Gov. Justice said. "If you get vaccinated, all you have to do is register for our 'Do it for Babydog' sweepstakes and you're in the drawing for some great prizes. We gave away a lot of incredible stuff on our State's birthday Sunday. There was a lady that won $1 million, there were a couple beautiful trucks that we gave away, a couple of kids got four-year scholarships, and we gave away all kinds of other stuff. It was just great. And, if you get vaccinated, you could be the next big winner in one of our upcoming drawings."

Vaccinated West Virginians have six more chances to win in the "Do it for Babydog: Save a life, Change your life" vaccination sweepstakes.

Weekly prize giveaways for vaccinated West Virginians ages 18 and older include one cash prize of $1 million, two brand new custom-outfitted trucks, five lifetime hunting licenses, five lifetime fishing licenses, five custom hunting rifles, five custom hunting shotguns, and 25 weekend getaways to West Virginia State Parks. Two full four-year scholarships to any public institution in the state will also be given away each week to vaccinated West Virginians ages 12-25.

All West Virginians who have received at least one dose of any of the COVID-19 vaccines are encouraged to register at DoitforBabydog.wv.gov to join the list of winners. Online registration to be eligible to win in the next prize drawing will remain open until Sunday, June 27, at 11:59 p.m. EDT. Winners will be announced next Wednesday, June 30.

Additional drawings will be held every Wednesday through Aug. 4. The final drawing will also include a $1.588 million grand prize and a $588,000 second prize.

"But for those that aren't vaccinated, do you realize that you're in a drawing too? You're in a drawing that's life or death," Gov. Justice said. "Every day when I do these briefings, I read a list of people that have died.

"So you've got a choice. You're either in the Babydog lottery or the death lottery," Gov. Justice continued. "Please get in the Babydog lottery with all of us. Don't be in the lottery where we're reading your name at one of these briefings."

The Governor added that all West Virginians who have received one dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines need to remember to get their second dose as well to ensure maximum protection against COVID-19.

Additionally Tuesday, Gov. Justice announced that, according to the latest vaccination data, 62.4% of all West Virginians who are eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine have now received at least one dose. To date, 972,662 of 1,557,837 vaccine-eligible West Virginians have received their first shot.

Additionally, over 77% of West Virginians ages 50 and older have received at least one dose of the vaccine and over 85% of West Virginians ages 65 and older have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

COVID-19 vaccinations are now available to all West Virginians ages 12 and older.

All West Virginians interested in being vaccinated are urged to visit Vaccinate.wv.gov or call the West Virginia Vaccine Info Line: 1-833-734-0965. The info line is open Monday-Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

In addition to clinic locations, vaccinations continue to be made available at Walgreens locations, the Med Shoppe/Leader network of pharmacies, Walmart locations, and additional independent pharmacies throughout the state as part of the federal pharmacy partnership in West Virginia.

West Virginians can visit Vaccines.gov for assistance in locating and securing an appointment at one of these federal pharmacy partners.

The Joint Interagency Task Force (JIATF) on COVID-19 vaccines continues to ask manufacturers and businesses across the state to increase vaccine access for employees and their families by reaching out to the JIATF to organize vaccination clinics at their facilities. Additionally, church leaders are still urged to contact the JIATF for help organizing vaccination clinics for interested members of their congregations.

Anyone interested in organizing one of these vaccination clinics is asked to contact the West Virginia Vaccine Info Line: 1-833-734-0965.

Information for this article provided by the office of Gov. Jim Justice.