Governor Jim Justice said West Virginia is not short on gasoline due to cyber hack of the Colonial Pipeline.
Justice said the administration is monitoring the situation and even added the state to the amended regional emergency declaration by Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Justice said the declaration will assist in transporting fuel to shortage locations.
The Governor said W.Va. gets the bulk of the state’s fuel supplies from the Plantation Pipeline that has a similar path as the Colonial Pipeline and is operating normally. Justice said people should make sure to have enough gasoline but there is no need to stockpile fuel.
“We, basically, are creating our own fuel shortage,” Justice said of people buying up gas for fear of extended periods of unavailability.
Justice also updated the state’s COVID-19 numbers during his conference on coronavirus response.
The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources reported 340 new cases of coronavirus in the state Wednesday morning.
Fourteen deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours. Since the onset of the outbreak, 2,748 West Virginians have died due to complications from the coronavirus.
W.Va. has 6,716 active cases of COVID-19. Today’s daily infection rate is 5.13%.
Cases hospitalized for the virus now total 264 patients. Ninety of the patients are in ICU and 34 patients are on a vent in the Mountain State
According to the County Alert Map, no counties have been listed in the red category. Logan is orange today and a most surrounding counties are gold.