West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice recently credited God for the lower number of COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations in the state, while also administering COVID-19 vaccines to more people per capita than almost any other state.
In an interview with CBN News last Thursday, Justice explained that the state opted not to use a federal plan in which the vaccines would be sent to large pharmacies such as Walgreens and CVS.
“We recruited our local pharmacies, our local health clinics”, he explained. “We absolutely put our National Guard right to work. We took this to the people because the people are used to going to certain places and everything. And with all that, we started putting shots in people's arms, and that's why we've led the way.”
Last year, Justice proclaimed a statewide day of prayer on March 25, as he called West Virginians to seek the Lord’s intervention over the pandemic.
“But Father, I pray for all of us in our great state that You will intervene now and hear our words as I know You will, and some way, somehow intervene to stop this terrible virus,” he prayed at the time.
Despite a difficult year, he credited God’s continued guidance through it all.
“He has surely guided the boat since that day, (that we prayed) I can promise you that," Justice asserted.
He also explained how “good sound thinking” also helped with the vaccine rollout. At the present time, West Virginia, along with North Dakota, have both administered 81 percent of available vaccines.
According to The Christian Post, Justice said in a briefing on Friday that he is calling on the federal government to distribute more doses of the vaccine to West Virginia.
“We’re going through every channel we can go through,” he explained. “One thing that I cannot get straight in my head is you have states all across this country that have hundreds of thousands or millions of vaccines that are not in somebody’s arm; they’re in a warehouse. Hours mean something — not days, weeks, or months — hours mean something to try to save somebody’s life.”
As of Sunday afternoon, data provided by the CDC’s COVID Data Tracker shows that out of the over 59 million vaccines delivered to states across the nation, only more than 41 million doses have been administered.
On Monday, the state reported that West Virginia has administered 219,892 of the first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine while 105,889 have been fully vaccinated.
Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Hunter Martin/Stringer
Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for CrosswalkHeadlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.
