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CHARLESTON -- West Virginia will lift its mask mandate on June 20 as target levels for vaccinations are reached, Gov. Jim Justice said.
Sixty-five percent of the state’s population age 12 and older should have received or one or both shots by June 20, enabling the mask mandate to be lifted, he said during his coronavirus briefing. The governor said he is basing the decision on the advice from health and medical experts.
Target levels could be reached before the 158th anniversary of West Virginia’s statehood or it could come several days later, but June 20 is when the mask mandate will be removed, Justice said.
The initiative to encourage everyone to get vaccinated will be called a Call to Arms, a reference to arms where the vaccines are administered by needle, he said.
The state is preparing to vaccinate 12-to-15-year-olds upon approval of the Pfizer vaccine for that age group by the Food and Drug Administration, according to James Hoyer, director of the Joint Interagency Task Force on Vaccines. Preparations have been made with schools, for example, he said.
“We will start that day or the next day,” Hoyer said.
Read more in the next edition of The Parkersburg News and Sentinel.