West Virginia Governor Jim Justice said on Thursday that he would request permission from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to provide fourth COVID-19 vaccine.

At the press conference, Justis mentioned Israel, which last month became one of the first countries to approve the fourth dose of the vaccine for those most vulnerable to COVID-19, as it prepares to respond to the omicron variant A wave of infections triggered.

“We have to do something,” Justis said. “Either we sit down and let our people die, we sit down and fill our hospitals, or we try. If the CDC comes back and says no, we can’t do this now, and then there are enough governors to go with them, we will definitely go with them Go. Then we might cross the finish line like that.”

Justis, a Republican, will be one of the first state leaders to ask the CDC to conduct a fourth COVID-19 injection. About half of the population in West Virginia has been vaccinated.

The state’s coronavirus expert, Dr. Klemash, said: “We have not seen the measures that omicron will take the brunt.” “The effectiveness of these vaccines is waning. We cannot make the most vulnerable people sick due to COVID-19.

“This is a critical moment for us. We hope we can make a decision quickly.”

West Virginia has the third oldest population in the United States, with nearly 20% of its 1.79 million residents over 65 years old. The state also surpasses most other states in terms of the proportion of the population affected by diabetes, heart disease and obesity.

The justice’s request came on the occasion of a pandemic record of daily positive coronavirus cases in West Virginia.

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The 3,345 confirmed cases reported on Thursday were 29% higher than the 2,585 cases set last Friday. According to the HHS virus dashboard, the daily positive record has been broken four times in the past week, including three consecutive days last week.

The number of people hospitalized due to the virus is also increasing. Health officials said that 758 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 on Wednesday, up from 557 at Christmas. The record is 1,012 set on September 24.

James Hoyer, who leads the state’s coronavirus task force, said the concern about hospitalization is the number of facilities, not the available beds. Approximately 1,700 nurses refuse to renew their state licenses in 2020.

Justis once stated that 68% of people who left the field said they were “just tired” and “pushed to the limit by the pressure of the pandemic.”

The state has adjusted the number of active cases in accordance with the CDC guidelines, which now reflect the length of active status as 5 days instead of 10 days. On Wednesday, the total number of active cases was close to 12,000, a downward revision from nearly 18,900 on Tuesday.

Since the pandemic began in March 2020, nearly 5,400 people have died in West Virginia.