County Health Department cancels 1st-dose vaccination events
LUMBERTON — The county Health Department has cancelled all first-dose COVID-19 vaccination events because severe weather has delayed delivery of the coronavirus vaccine, the agency’s director said Thursday.
“This also means we are not taking appointments for the next group (schools and childcare workers) until vaccine notification has been received,” Bill Smith said. “Anyone with a first-dose appointment has been called and informed.”
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services issued a statement Thursday in which the agency said it has been notified by the federal government of continued delays in some shipments of COVID-19 vaccine this week because of the severe weather.
“Both first- and second-dose shipments have been impacted. The Department is working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and vaccine providers to help minimize the potential effects of these delays,” a NCDHHS statement reads in part.
Providers have yet to receive nearly 300,000 COVID-19 vaccines the federal government was set to deliver this week, according to the state health agency. Clinics were being asked to plan to postpone appointments because of the delays caused by severe winter weather.
None of the more than 163,000 first and second doses of the Moderna vaccine scheduled to arrive this week have been delivered by the federal government, according to NCDHHS. Less than one-third of the nearly 127,000 Pfizer vaccines expected this week have been shipped.
“There are approximately 20 Moderna doses on hand and 1,000 Pfizer doses,” Smith said. “However, they are all assigned for second doses, that is they are the follow-up dose for people who received their first dose. Given the events to be done this weekend and the appointments for next week for second-dose only, we will have about 300 doses for people who have not made appointments, but this is for second dose only.”
The county Health Department ran out of first doses Tuesday because stock is to be exhausted each Monday evening, he said. Neither Southeastern nor the county Health Department is scheduled to get second doses next week, according to a schedule sent out Thursday.
“We will continue to administer second doses until the vaccine is exhausted,” Smith said. “We have continued our usual health clinics throughout the vaccination activities so that will not change. Monday, we saw 700 people for vaccinations, and today it was less than 200.”
The county Health Department has plans for a Saturday clinic next week, which will help use more of the vaccine when it does arrive, he said. The department uses a combination of appointments and walk-ins for the vaccination clinics.
“We can easily increase the number of walk-ins taken based on vaccine availability,” Smith said.
The county Health Department has not received a tracking number, which means its shipment of vaccine has not been shipped so it cannot get here before next week, Smith said. And as of Wednesday, Southeastern had not received its weekly allocation.
“UNC Health Southeastern’s weekly allocation of COVID-19 vaccine was severely limited by the adverse weather across the nation,” Jason Cox, vice president and chief operating officer, said Thursday. “Fortunately, there was enough vaccine on hand to administer scheduled second doses and host a joint event with the Unified Robeson Chapter of the NAACP at the Robeson County Fairgrounds today. We expect this week’s and next week’s allocation in time for the state’s Phase 3 of vaccine eligibility.”
Even in the face of weather-related shortages, Southeastern is taking vaccination appointments for teachers and all school personnel who are currently in or returning to in-person roles at day cares, preschools and/or K-12 schools.
Educators and school employees can schedule COVID-19 vaccinations through UNC Health Southeastern’s website, srmc.org, by clicking on “Get Vaccinated,” according to Southeastern. Available appointments will be shown on the online scheduling module, and the user can select the location and time that is most convenient. Once the schedule is filled, scheduling will be closed and re-opened as new vaccination appointments become available each week.
North Carolina was on track to receive a combined total of more than 290,000 first and second doses of vaccine this week, with about 56% coming from Moderna.
Gov. Roy Cooper said Thursday in a news conference the delays would not affect plans to begin vaccinating K-12 teachers and school staff next Wednesday.
“Obviously, I and governors in a lot of other states are very frustrated about the weather delays for the vaccines that are coming into our state,” Cooper said. “I don’t think the delays will be so much that it would affect anything in our stages.”
As of Thursday, North Carolina has administered almost two million doses of vaccine, according to Cooper’s office.
Effects of Thursday’s ice storm were being felt most significantly in northern and western counties. North Carolina utility companies reported nearly 23,000 power outages statewide as of 1:35 pm Thursday. Most of the outages were caused by ice accumulation bringing down trees and power lines.
Extra utility crews are at work to restore power as quickly as possible, according to the governor’s office.