West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice (R ) is feeling “extremely unwell” after testing positive for the Wuhan coronavirus, the Governor’s office announced Tuesday.
According to the announcement, Justice is fully vaccinated and has received a booster shot. He is receiving a course of monoclonal antibody treatment. His State of the State address, scheduled for Wednesday, will be delivered by written message “to satisfy constitutional requirements.” He will deliver an in-person address at a later date.
“I woke up this morning with congestion and a cough. A little while later, I developed a headache and fever, so I decided to get tested right away. The rapid test that I took came back negative, but by the late afternoon, my symptoms were still getting much worse. My blood pressure and heart rate were extremely elevated, and I had a high fever. Finally, my PCR test results this evening confirmed I was positive. Because of all this, I began receiving my antibody treatment and I hope this will lessen these symptoms,” Justice said in a statement. “I feel extremely unwell at this point.”
He added in the statement that his office is going to showcase what West Virginia has accomplished with economic development, stating that “we are on a rocket ship ride and the world is finally waking up to it.”
“I ask everyone to continue praying for the 5,452 great West Virginians that we’ve lost. We need to keep pulling the rope together. We’re going to get through this and put an end to this terrible pandemic once and for all,” Justice’s statement concluded.
Last week, Justice announced that he’d requested President Biden to direct the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to allow West Virginia to administer a fourth dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to slow the spread of the Omicron variant.