Tag: Virginia

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John Warner, Genteel Senator From Virginia, Dies at 94

John Warner, Genteel Senator From Virginia, Dies at 94

WASHINGTON — Senator John W. Warner of Virginia, the genteel former Navy secretary who shed the image of a dilettante to become a leading Republican voice on military policy during 30 years in the Senate, died on Tuesday night. He was 94.

He died at his home of heart failure, according to a former staff member.

Mr. Warner may have for a time been best known nationally as the dashing sixth husband of the actress Elizabeth Taylor. Her celebrity was a draw on the campaign trail during his difficult first race for the Senate in 1978, an election he won narrowly to start his political career. The couple divorced in 1982.

In the latter stages of his congressional service, Mr. Warner was also recognized as a protector of the Senate’s traditions and was credited with trying to forge bipartisan consensus on knotty issues such as the Iraq war, judicial nominations and treatment of terror detainees.

A full obituary will be published soon.

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Politics

Virginia, the Previous Confederacy’s Coronary heart, Turns into a Voting Rights Bastion

Virginia, the Old Confederacy’s Heart, Becomes a Voting Rights Bastion

The state’s voting law is incorporated into law by a governor whose career nearly derailed in 2019 due to a blackface scandal. Since then, Mr. Northam has spearheaded a number of racial justice initiatives in the state and has enjoyed wide approval ratings. He said Wednesday that Virginia law should become a model for the nation.

“At a time when voting rights in our country are under attack, Virginia is expanding access to the ballot box without restricting it,” said Northam. “Our Commonwealth is creating a model for how states can provide comprehensive voter protection that strengthens democracy and the integrity of our elections.”

Virginia’s move away from its longstanding voting restrictions began in 2016 when Governor Terry McAuliffe returned the vote to 206,000 offenders in the state over objections from the Republican-led General Assembly and the State Supreme Court. After the court ruled that Mr. McAuliffe had no authority to restore offenders en masse, but could do so on a case-by-case basis, the court sent 206,000 individual voting restoration letters to offenders, mailed envelopes with a Virginia voter application form and one self-addressed stamped envelope.

“For me it was a moral issue of civil rights, and this was a racist Jim Crow bill that needed to be eliminated,” McAuliffe said on Wednesday.

After the Democrats took full control of the state government last year, one of the first bills they passed created one of the longest primaries in the country – a 45-day window for apologetic absentee ballot, in which people vote without remote voting may have to provide a justification. More than 2.8 million Virginians voted at the start of the 2020 election, almost five times as many as in 2016.

“My ancestors fought hard for this,” said Charniele Herring, author of the early voting bill that became the first black majority leader in the Virginia House of Representatives last year. “My parents had to have this fight in the 1960s and this is the time to end this fight and protect everyone’s right to vote, regardless of political affiliation.”

All Republican lawmakers opposed the Virginia Voting Rights Act, arguing that it would flood local election officials with lawsuits and make routine voting changes difficult. Glenn Davis, a Virginia Beach Republican delegate running for lieutenant governor, said it was “just human” that Democratic efforts to simplify voting, like getting rid of Virginia’s photo ID, would lead to more fraud.

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Virginia will get near legalizing leisure weed as different states eye hashish tax windfalls

Virginia gets close to legalizing recreational weed as other states eye cannabis tax windfalls

A customer sets fire to a shop in Lowell Farms, America’s first official cannabis cafe serving farm-to-table dining and smoking cannabis on October 1, 2019 in West Hollywood, California.

Mike Blake | Reuters

Virginia is on the verge of becoming the first southern state to generate high tax revenues when it comes to legalizing recreational herbs.

A bill passed on Sunday Democratic Governor Ralph Northam’s signature awaits in both the State House of Representatives and the Senate.

Once signed, the Old Dominion would officially join 15 other states and the District of Columbia that have legalized marijuana for recreational adult use. Under Virginia law, legal sales and ownership would not take effect until 2024.

States from Wisconsin to Kansas – many of them strapped for money amid the Covid pandemic – are calling for similar measures as they struggle to balance their budgets. The governors also cite racial justice as a reason for legalizing marijuana. Black and Latin American men across the country are more likely to be incarcerated than their white counterparts for the same offenses.

Support for marijuana legalization has grown steadily over the years. Recent Gallup polls found that 68% of adults in the US think marijuana should be legalized for recreational use, up from 66% last year. With Democratic President Joe Biden in the White House and the party currently holding a majority in both the House of Representatives and Senate, federal marijuana legalization could be closer than ever.

For now, however, it remains a state-to-state decision.

New Jersey is the youngest to join the party. Democratic Governor Phil Murphy signed a reform bill in late February after voters approved the measure in November. A report by the bipartisan think tank New Jersey Policy Perspective estimates the state could generate at least $ 300 million in tax revenue annually.

For Virginia, legalizing pots could bring in $ 698 million to $ 1.2 billion annually in economic activity and up to $ 274 million in tax revenue annually, according to a study by the governors’ office.

Northam also acknowledged racial differences in drug abuse convictions in his most recent State of the Commonwealth address. “Reforming our marijuana laws is one way to ensure Virginia is a fairer state that works better for everyone,” he said.

Not all constituents are happy with the pace of change. The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia said the legislation paid “lip service” but “does nothing to address the persistent racial gaps we see decriminalizing through 2024,” reported WWBT, an NBC partner in television Richmond, Virginia.

A governor’s spokesman told CNBC: “We have a lot of work to do, but this bill will help reinvest in our communities and reduce inequalities in our criminal justice system.” The spokesman said the governor’s top priority is making sure Virginia legalizes marijuana fairly.

Other governors are calling for legalization

In Pennsylvania, Governor Tom Wolf again called for marijuana legalization in his state budget address, highlighting it as a priority for this year after neighboring states either approve or are considering legalization.

“I urge lawmakers to work with me to build a foundation to strengthen the Pennsylvania economy by legalizing adult cannabis,” the Democratic governor said in a message to lawmakers in September.

The governor also highlighted racial justice as a priority for legalization. “These are proceeds that can help criminal justice-affected Pennsylvanians gain access to restorative justice programs.”

Pennsylvania blacks are three times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than whites, according to the state’s ACLU chapter. Wolf’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Highlight the cons

Washington, which was one of the first states to legalize recreational herbs in 2012, made a total of $ 395.5 million in legal marijuana tax revenue and royalties in fiscal 2019, according to the state’s annual report. The legal marijuana market in the state supports more than 18,500 jobs, according to a recent study by Washington State University.

But as with many good things, there are often downsides. A University of Washington study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine showed that the legalization of cannabis in the state and a general change in attitudes towards the plant began to slow the downward trend in cannabis use among teenagers.

Study lead author Jennifer Bailey said, “We really don’t want teenage consumption to increase,” but added that it will be several decades before the effects of legalization are fully understood, as is the case with post-alcohol alcohol Prohibition was the case. She also highlighted racial justice, tax issues, and cannabis research as important benefits of legalization.

Many states are incorporating the language into cannabis legislation, according to which communities affected by racial inequalities in criminal justice will benefit most from legalization. But even guidelines developed for the benefit of color communities sometimes fail.

In Illinois, for example, a year after the state legalized the plant, there are still no minority-owned cannabis stores, even though the legislation includes language to limit pharmacies to give minority communities an advantage. The Illinois governor’s office did not immediately return a request for comment.

“There is a small fraction of the people who have cash and control over the money. If you have an industry and an emerging market and you can only join when you have cash, you’ve already eliminated the blacks,” said the Democratic La Shawn Ford, a member of the state legislature’s Black Caucus, told Politico.

Government shared roadblocks

States that have split government like Wisconsin may find it more difficult to pass comprehensive cannabis reform. Democratic Governor Tony Evers recently said he would propose legalizing recreational marijuana in Wisconsin, citing potential tax revenues of more than $ 165 million a year for the state.

“The legalization and taxation of marijuana in Wisconsin – just like we already do with alcohol – ensures that a controlled market and a safe product are available for both recreational and medical users, and can open up myriad opportunities for us to be in our communities to invest and create more just state, “he said in a recent statement.

With Republican lawmakers currently controlling the Wisconsin legislature, it is unlikely to pass.

Many southern states share a similar fate. Legislators in the Mississippi House and Senate are currently fighting over the language for a medical marijuana bill after a measure mandating a state medical marijuana program was approved by Mississippi voters.

In Minnesota, HF 600 was recently the first adult recreational use bill to stand out of the state’s committee. Minnesota’s Senate is controlled by Republicans and the House is controlled by Democrats, diminishing the likelihood of the bill being passed. Democratic Governor Tim Walz recently urged lawmakers to consider legalizing marijuana to boost the state’s economy in a briefing focused on his budget proposal. Comments from Walz’s office were not immediately returned.

Even election initiatives approved by voters can go up in smoke. A Circuit Court judge appointed by Republican Governor Kristi Noem recently ruled that a constitutional amendment approved by South Dakota voters to legalize recreational marijuana was unconstitutional. The ruling said the change would have “far-reaching implications for the fundamental nature” of the state government.

Recently, Democrat Laura Kelly, Kansas governor, announced a proposal to legalize medical marijuana in the deep red state to increase the revenue needed to expand Kansas’s Medicaid program to nearly 200,000 residents, who currently lack coverage. The Republican-controlled legislature is expected to reject the proposal, but Majority Leader Dan Hawkins did not take medical marijuana off the table. In a statement to Politico, he acknowledged growing support for drug reform but said it was too early to predict how the debate would develop.

In total, around 12 countries are currently considering some kind of cannabis reform legislation. States like New York, Connecticut, New Mexico, and Hawaii could soon see laws covering governors’ desks.

“It’s not about whether a deal comes about,” New York State Senate Democratic Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins ​​told the New York Times in January. “It’s about how and when.”

CORRECTION: This story has been updated to reflect the University of Washington study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. In a previous version, the name of the university was incorrectly entered.

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Politics

The Virginia G.O.P. Voted on Its Future. The Losers Reject the Outcomes.

The Virginia G.O.P. Voted on Its Future. The Losers Reject the Results.

On the second front, how a convention would work, Republicans are grappling with a state ban on most gatherings of more than 10 people. As a result, the party cannot hold a personal meeting of several thousand people. Party leaders are trying to change their rules to allow for a congress that will be held in dozens of locations in Virginia.

This requires the approval of three-quarters of the members of the state central committee – a threshold that has not yet been reached, as 31 of the 72 members of the committee are campaigning for a primary school. In other words, these Republicans are trying to block the possibility of a convention in the hope that eventually a primary will have to be held.

“The fact that there is a minority faction that has lost and is standing in the way of a safe convention to try to get the primary that they can’t win fair – that says a lot about them,” said Patti Lyman, who Republican national committee woman for Virginia. “All of their arguments can be reduced to the following: We have lost and we don’t like it.”

Ms. Chase, who still argued with less than a week in Mr. Trump’s presidency that he could still be inaugurated for a second term, said Thursday that she “does not trust conventions” to which she is wrongly restricting electoral access Members of the military and others who cannot make it to a personal website.

“If we’re going to win as Republicans, we have to get more voters, who vote Republicans, rather than fewer,” she said. “Stop creating so many barriers for people who would normally choose.”

Some proponents of a convention advocate ranking voting, a system promoted by progressives elsewhere. The dispute threatens to undermine the already tough Republican struggle in this year’s elections and to extend democratic control of the state.

At the center of the party’s argument is a crowded group of Republican gubernatorial candidates, each with a candidate from the Trump and Establishment wings of the GOP and two wealthy wildcards. The main candidates are Ms. Chase; Kirk Cox, a former State House Speaker who is the party’s elected legislature favorite; Pete Snyder, a technology millionaire who lost an offer for lieutenant governor nomination at a party conference in 2013; and Glenn Youngkin, an even richer former private equity executive who is new to politics.

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Health

West Virginia governor claims each individual over 65 might be vaccinated by Valentine’s Day

West Virginia governor claims every person over 65 could be vaccinated by Valentine's Day

West Virginia Governor Jim Justice praised the success of distributing coronavirus vaccines in his state, claiming that if the mountain state had the “Valentine’s Day doses,” everyone in that state, 65 years of age and older, would be vaccinated.

West Virginia has spent the past three weeks as the number one or number two state in the nation for vaccination doses per capita, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Covid-19 Vaccination Tracker. The state also has an administration rate for the first dose of 95.2% and a vaccination rate for the second dose of 46.8%. This is based on vaccine data released on West Virginia’s Covid-19 dashboard on Wednesday.

Justice broke his state’s “all-in” approach to spreading the Covid vaccine in CNBC’s “The News with Shepard Smith”.

“We didn’t necessarily take the federal approach, we took a practical approach and we took an all-in approach,” Justice said during an interview on Wednesday evening. “We brought our National Guard, our local pharmacies, our local health workers, our local health clinics and everything.”

Justice added that the West Virginia model “is not rocket science, it just moves and doesn’t sit back and plan a strategy”.

However, vaccine adoption remains slower than expected in several states in the country. Wisconsin, for example, has lagged behind, handing out only 42.5% of its Covid vaccine doses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Governor Tony Evers described the introduction of the state vaccine as “a bit bumpy”. Evers said his state did not get enough vaccines from the federal government and those who give vaccines needed more time to prepare.

West Virginia has delivered nearly 12,000 doses, 77% of their dose coverage. The judiciary emphasized the importance of putting older Americans at the forefront of a vaccination strategy.

“We just saw it that way and it was age and age and age and we knew we had to move,” Justice said. “We didn’t want vaccines on a shelf, we needed them in people’s arms.”

January 2021 is already the worst month in the United States since the coronavirus pandemic began, with more than 79,000 deaths, according to a CNBC analysis of Johns Hopkins data. It’s a grim milestone that has broken the December record by more than a thousand deaths.

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Politics

Virginia man arrested at inauguration checkpoint with gun

Virginia man arrested at inauguration checkpoint with gun

Members of the National Guard stop a vehicle at a checkpoint in Washington, DC on January 16, 2021.

Joe Raedle | Getty Images News | Getty Images

A Virginia man who presented an unauthorized housewarming pass to police at a checkpoint along the perimeter that secured downtown Washington, DC prior to inauguration day, was arrested after a gun and hundreds of rounds of ammunition were found in his vehicle had been.

Front Royal’s Wesley Allen Beeler pulled up in a white Ford 150 truck with Virginia tags and gun-related stickers at a security checkpoint on North Capitol Street and E Street Northwest around 6:30 p.m. Friday.

The truck Beeler drove was adorned with firearm decals, including those that read “Assault Life” and “If they come for your guns, give them your bullets first.”

Police say Beeler presented an unauthorized ID. The authorities did not immediately provide further details of what kind of documentation Beeler was alleged to be attempting to provide.

When the ID did not match a list of people authorized to enter the dedication area, US Capitol police officers conducted further searches.

A weapon with a high-performance magazine and ammunition was found in the vehicle, the police said. The gun has not been registered in Washington, DC, police said.

Police say they also found “509 9-MM cartridges of hollow point and bullet ammunition” and 21 12-gauge shotgun cartridges.

Beeler was arrested and taken to the headquarters of the US Capitol Police for processing.

Beeler is accused of carrying a hidden weapon with an unregistered firearm, illegal ammunition possession and a large capacity ammunition feeding device, according to DC police.

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Politics

Jacob Fracker, Virginia Nationwide Guard corporal, charged in U.S. Capitol riot

Jacob Fracker, Virginia National Guard corporal, charged in U.S. Capitol riot

This January 6, 2021 photo, provided by the United States Capitol Police in a warrant of appeal and arrest, shows Rocky Mount Police Department Sgt. Thomas “TJ” Robertson and officer Jacob Fracker in the Capitol building in front of a statute of John Stark, a Revolutionary War officer known for writing the New Hampshire state motto: “Live Free or Die”.

United States Capitol Police | AP

The U.S. Army said Jacob Fracker – one of the two off-duty Virginia police officers arrested on riot charges at the Capitol – is a non-commissioned officer in the Virginia National Guard.

Fracker is the first known active military service to be charged in the attack on the convention halls.

The disclosure of Fracker’s status as a Guardsman comes as thousands of National Guard service members, some of whom are armed, provide security in and around the Capitol following the deadly January 6 riot.

President Donald Trump was charged Tuesday with incitement to mob protests against Joe Biden’s election as president.

Fracker and colleague Thomas Robertson of Rocky Mount, Virginia, were seen posing for a photo and making obscene gestures in front of a statue in the Capitol during the invasion. This is evident from filings filed with the U.S. District Court in Washington, DC

Other rioters killed Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick and beat and sprayed other police officers defending the complex that same day.

Four other people died in the hand-to-hand combat, including an Air Force veteran Ashli ​​Babbitt, a rioter who was shot and killed by police while attempting to climb through a blocked area in the House of Representatives building.

Another member of the mob, retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Larry Rendall Brock Jr., was charged with the riot in which he was photographed in the Senate wearing a helmet and zippered handcuffs.

This undated photo, made available by the Grapevine, Texas Police Department in January 2021, shows Larry Rendall Brock Jr. During the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, January 6, 2021, Brock was helmeted in the Senate and heavy vest photographed and handcuffed with zippers.

Grapevine, Texas Police Department via AP

Brock was handcuffed for “taking hostages” and possibly “executing members of the US government,” a federal attorney told a judge who released Brock on Thursday in the Texas detention center.

In a social media post relating to the photo of him and Robertson, Fracker wrote, “Lol to anyone who may be concerned about the picture of me,” according to the District of Columbia District Attorney’s Office both pursued police officers.

“I’m sorry I hate freedom?” Fracker wrote. “Not as if I did anything illegal … you do what you think is necessary.”

Robertson wrote in his own mocking post-attack social media post, “CNN and the left are just insane because we actually attacked the government that is the problem, and not some random small business.”

“The right one day took the f ***** US Capitol. Keep nudging us,” Robertson wrote, according to the prosecutor. In an Instagram post, Robertson wrote that he was “proud” of the photo because he was “ready to bring skin into play”.

Both Fracker and Robertson are charged with knowingly entering or staying in a restricted building or site without legal authority, once forcibly intruding and behaving in disorder for the purposes of the Capitol.

They are each free for an unsecured release loan of $ 15,000 and are not allowed to go to Washington or participate in demonstrations or protests while their criminal case continues.

Robertson told WSLS-10 News that the photo of him and Fracker “was taken long after a disturbance and we were admitted and escorted by the Capitol Police.”

He also said, “I went through an open door that was guarded by two Capitol police officers, got a bottle of water by then and asked to stay in a rope area, which we did.”

Dozens of other people were charged with the uprising that began after Trump held a rally on The Ellipse calling on supporters to march to the Capitol and help him reverse Biden’s election as president.

In a statement to CNBC, the National Guard said, “Jacob Fracker is a sergeant in the Virginia National Guard serving as an 11B infantryman in a traditional National Guard status where he typically trains one weekend a month and two weeks of annual training.”

“He is currently not serving with the Virginia National Guard forces in Washington, DC,” said the spokesman. “The Virginia National Guard will be investigating the matter and we will be able to provide more information when this is complete.”

In its own statement, the Rocky Mount Police Department said it “takes this matter very seriously” and is investigating the incident.

In the meantime, Fracker and Robertson are on administrative leave pending this review, police said.

“The recent events in our US Capitol are tragic. We stand with and support those who denounced the violence and illegal activities that day,” the department said.

In a statement Tuesday, the Army said it was working with the FBI to determine if anyone involved in last week’s riot had any connection with the Army.

“Any type of activity that involves violence, civil disobedience or a violation of the peace can be punished under the Unified Code of Military Justice or federal or state law,” an army spokesman wrote in an email sent to CNBC Explanation.

Gary Reed, director of intelligence at the Pentagon, wrote in a statement Wednesday: “We in the Department of Defense are doing everything we can to eradicate extremism in the Department of Defense.”

“DoD policy expressly forbids military personnel from actively advocating supremacist, extremist or criminal gang doctrine, ideology or causes,” wrote Reed.

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Health

42 Individuals in West Virginia Mistakenly Given Virus Remedy As a substitute of Vaccine

42 People in West Virginia Mistakenly Given Virus Treatment Instead of Vaccine

42 people in Boone County, southwest West Virginia, who were due to be given the coronavirus vaccine Wednesday, were instead mistakenly injected with experimental monoclonal antibody treatment, the West Virginia National Guard said Thursday.

None of the 42 recipients have developed any adverse effects to date, the guard said in a statement. The guard who directs the state’s vaccine distribution efforts described the flaw as a “collapse of the process.”

The experimental treatment, a cocktail of antibodies from Regeneron, is the same that President Trump received when he was hospitalized with Covid-19 in November. It is intended to be given as an intravenous infusion, not a direct injection like the vaccine.

Maj. Gen. James Hoyer, the West Virginia National Guard’s adjutant general, said the mix-up appeared to have occurred during the delivery of a shipment of the Regeneron cocktail to a distribution hub where the vials were placed among the supplies of the Moderna vaccine. The hub staff then apparently included the treatment vials in a vaccine shipment to Boone County.

General Hoyer attributed the situation to “a few human errors” and said the guard acted quickly once they realized what had happened. “We have found a problem, we fix it and we are making progress,” he said on Thursday in a radio interview.

No other shipments of the vaccine were affected, the guard said in a statement.

Vials for the treatment and vaccine look somewhat similar but are clearly labeled, as are the boxes they are in. Both are kept refrigerated before use.

The mistake came at a time when record numbers of hospitalizations across the country signaled a greater need than ever for the scarce and expensive antibody treatments, even though some supplies across the country are being kept unused in refrigerators.

Officials in West Virginia reported 1,109 new coronavirus cases and 20 new deaths Thursday. There have been at least 85,334 cases and 1,338 deaths in the state since the pandemic began, according to a database from the New York Times.

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Health

West Virginia mistakenly provides 42 individuals Regeneron IV Covid therapy as a substitute of vaccine shot

West Virginia mistakenly gives 42 people Regeneron IV Covid treatment instead of vaccine shot

A pharmacist dilutes the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine as he prepares it for administration to staff and residents at Goodwin House Bailey’s Crossroads, a senior community in Falls Church, Virginia, on December 30, 2020.

Brendan Smialowski | AFP | Getty Images

Dozens of people in West Virginia were mistakenly given Regeneron’s Covid-19 antibodies instead of the Moderna vaccine, the West Virginia National Guard said Thursday.

According to the state’s National Guard, 42 people received the intravenous treatment at a Boone County Department of Health vaccination clinic. The National Guard said it learned of the mistake on Wednesday.

Everyone who received the antibody treatment instead of the vaccine, which is given through a shot in the arm, has been contacted, Julie Miller, a Boone County Health Department administrator, told CNBC via email. She added, “We don’t think there is any risk of harm.”

Regeneron’s monoclonal antibody treatment, which must be given via an IV drip, is seen as a promising treatment for Covid-19 – especially if given early in the course of the infection. But the West Virginia mix-up is just one example of the confusion in the rush to distribute the vaccine to tens of millions of people. The rollout was slower than expected and was characterized by logistical challenges.

“It was determined that this was an isolated incident,” Miller said. “All those affected will be offered the COVID-19 vaccine today.”

She said the health department will work closely with the state National Guard and the Department of Health and Human Resources to review their policies and procedures.

Miller did not provide details on what caused the mix-up.

Representatives from the West Virginia National Guard and the West Virginia Governor’s Office did not respond to CNBC’s request for further comment on the occurrence of the error.

Maj. Gen. James Hoyer, adjutant general of the West Virginia National Guard, said in a statement that his forces “acted immediately” to correct the mistake as soon as they found out what happened. “We immediately reviewed and strengthened our logs to improve our sales process and prevent this from happening again,” he said in a statement.

He added that the state will continue to promote the vaccine “to save more lives every day”.

Dr. Clay Marsh, the state’s Covid-19 tsar, noted in a statement that the Regeneron treatment mistakenly given in place of the vaccine is the same product “that was given to President Trump when he became infected”.

“Although this injection is not harmful, it has replaced the vaccine,” he said. “However, this event provides an important opportunity for our leadership team to review and improve the safety and vaccination process for every West Virginian.”

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Health

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice on nursing house rollout

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice on nursing home rollout

West Virginia is well on its way to delivering Covid-19 vaccines in all long-term care facilities by the end of this year, Republican Governor Jim Justice told CNBC on Tuesday.

This would be a significant milestone in West Virginia’s efforts to mitigate the effects of the coronavirus. Although less than 6% of the state’s coronavirus cases account for about 31% of all Covid-19 deaths in West Virginia, according to the COVID Tracking Project run by journalists from The Atlantic . The figures are based on the latest available data for the past week.

West Virginia began administering shots at its long-term care facilities last week after the Food and Drug Administration granted Pfizer and BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine limited approval. The state has since received doses of Moderna’s vaccine after it was approved for emergency use on Friday.

West Virginia administered approximately 8,100 doses of Pfizer BioNTech at 71 of its 214 long-term care facilities last week, according to Maj. Holli Nelson, a spokesman for the West Virginia National Guard. On average, about 80% of people in a facility wanted to be vaccinated, she told CNBC. Vaccinations are running this week for employees and residents of the remaining long-term care facilities, Nelson said.

In an interview on Squawk on the Street, Justice said West Virginia could start vaccinations in nursing homes earlier than many parts of the country because it relied on local pharmacies.

“Our great National Guard and all of our health officials came up with the idea of ​​basically recruiting all local pharmacies,” Justice said. He added that West Virginia may have given its first dose of vaccine in its long-term care facilities “before many states start”. Both the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines require two injections a few weeks apart.

Jim Justice, Governor of West Virginia.

Scott Halleran / Getty Images

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have partnered with Walgreens, CVS and select other pharmacy chains to deliver Covid-19 vaccines to nursing homes and assisted living facilities. CVS and Walgreens started delivering footage at some facilities on Friday before starting a wider rollout in the US this week.

More than 40,000 long-term care facilities have selected CVS to provide vaccinations through on-site clinics, CNBC previously reported. Walgreens will provide vaccinations in approximately 35,000 long-term care facilities.

Healthcare workers and residents of long-term care facilities were given priority by each state in their initial vaccine allocation plans. In West Virginia, in developing his own distribution plans, Justice “stated that his priority is to vaccinate residents and long-term care workers immediately,” West Virginia National Guard’s Maj .

“In our discussions, we opted for a slightly different approach than the plans used nationwide, as around 53-54% of our state’s pharmacies are not linked to the chain,” said Hoyer.

Long-term care facilities in the US are particularly hard hit by Covid-19 outbreaks. As the country’s epidemic worsened this fall, there was another spike in cases and deaths at the facilities. For this reason, the introduction of a vaccine comes at a critical time.

West Virginia is one of ten states where coronavirus cases are increasing on average by seven days, according to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Hospital admissions for Covid-19 patients also rose 8.4% in the past week. This is evident from the CNBC analysis of the data from the COVID tracking project.

– CNBC’s Nate Rattner contributed to this report.