Gov. Jim Justice announced another round of vaccine incentive giveaways aimed at children ages 5-18 named for Justice’s English bulldog “Babydog." (Photo Provided)

CHARLESTON — West Virginia officials hope the third time is the charm as it restarts a COVID-19 vaccine incentive program aimed at getting the state’s eligible children vaccinated.

Gov. Jim Justice announced Monday Do It For Babydog Round Three, named for the Governor’s English Bulldog that became the face of the state’s vaccine incentive efforts last summer.

“We’re going to go out with Babydog,” Justice said. “We’re going to dial right into our schools. We’re going to try every way whatsoever into at least incentivizing from the standpoint of education.”

Registration for Do It For Babydog Round Three will open today at doitforbabydog.wv.gov with registration closing each Sunday for the following week’s giveaways. The drawings will start next Monday, Nov. 15, and continue over the next four weeks except the week of Thanksgiving, with the final giveaway on Monday, Dec. 16.

“This is our campaign to try to incentivize the youngest of the youngest, with parental approval and everything, to get vaccinated,” Justice said

Justice said the state will give away 25 $10,000 educational savings fund per week, a grand prize each week of a $50,000 educational savings fund to one child, and a $50,000 check to the school the child attends along with a party at the school where the Governor and Babydog will attend.

During the last week of Do It For Babydog Round Three, the grand prize will increase to a $100,000 educational savings fund for one child and $100,000 to the school. Justice said other prizes will include 100 lifetime hunting and fishing licenses per week.

Justice said his visits to the schools of the winning grand prize students will also involve vaccinations, where doctors will administer vaccine doses to students who have parental consent.

The third round of Do It For Babydog is aimed at children ages 5-18 who have at least one dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control signed off on Pfizer’s pediatric coronavirus vaccine last week. The latest round will be funded with remaining federal COVID-19 relief dollars and expected to cost between $2 million and $3 million.

James Hoyer, leader of the state’s joint interagency vaccine task force, said state health officials received a third round of pediatric doses this week not counting doses sent directly from the federal government to pharmacies and health partners, with a fourth order placed for next week.

“Over 900,900 doses went directly to pharmacies and community health clinics under the federal pharmacy program,” Hoyer said. “There will be a meeting … with CDC on future ordering criteria and updates, so we continue to work those efforts and continue to make progress to get pediatric doses out to those who will be administering those doses.”

Dr. Clay Marsh, the state coronavirus czar, attended Monday’s COVID-19 briefing in person to warn that despite weeks of steady declines in active case numbers and hospitalizations, the reproductive rate of the virus was beginning to trend upward again and hospitalizations were plateauing.

“We are starting to see an uptick in our reproductive value. As we start to look at the present situation of COVID … that is a bit concerning,” Marsh said. “As it’s starting to get colder and people are gathering inside, we see that the number of cases of COVID-19 started to creep back up, particularly in parts of Europe and parts of our country … where our altitude is higher and the weather is colder.”

According to the state Department of Health and Human Resources, the state was down to 6,318 active COVID-19 cases as of Sunday, down from 6,597 active cases seven days ago. Hospitalizations were at 536, down from 575 six days ago, while cases in intensive care unit (ICU) beds stayed relatively flat at 195 cases.

Steven Allen Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com