CHARLESTON — The administration is working on another incentive to get people boosted against the COVID-19 coronavirus, the governor said Tuesday.

“We’re talking exactly about that right now,” Gov. Jim Justice said during his Tuesday morning virus briefing.

Early when vaccines became available in West Virginia, the state offered incentives to get vaccines, the Do it for Babydog sweepstakes named after his pet English bulldog. Prizes included new trucks, SUVs, college scholarships, free lifetime hunting and fishing licenses and vacation packages at state parks, among others.

A second booster shot was recently approved by the federal government and the vaccine is available.

“Maybe another incentive program would be good,” Justice said.

Vaccinations will stop the virus, he said.

“How many people do know out there who really, really had a terrible event from taking the vaccine? How many do you know,” Justice said. “Now you can make up stuff. But real stuff. How many do you know?”

The governor pointed out the people on the latest list of the virus dead are 50 years of age and older.

“If you’re not taking this booster shot, it’s absolutely just a tremendous mistake. That’s all there is to it,” he said. “We’ve got to quit scaring one another.”

Tuesday’s briefing included coronavirus adviser Dr. Clay Marsh, James Hoyer, director of the interagency joint task force on vaccines, Secretary Bill Crouch of the Department of Health and Human Resources and Scott Adkins, director of WorkForce West Virginia. Adkins provided an update on labor statistics including unemployment and available jobs since the first of the year when a jobs incentive program commenced.

Nationwide, 600,000 people in 2021 may not have died from the virus had they gotten a booster shot, Marsh said. The subvariant of the omicron mutation that is spreading across the world and the United States is more infectious, he said.

West Virginia is under performing, he said. About 47 percent have received booster doses, according to the state pandemic update released on Tuesday.

“It’s really sobering when you basically realize how powerful these vaccines are,” he said.

The statistics about how many lives would be saved in West Virginia are unavailable, Marsh said.

“I think that the important point is that we have the capabilities and we have the tools to save lives even today during the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.