The CDC vaccination panel shows that North Carolina gave the first dose of vaccination to 966 per 100,000 people.
“It’s probably going a little bit slower than we thought,” said Dr. Dennis Taylor, who treats patients at Wake Forest Baptist Health in Winston-Salem. He is also president of the North Carolina Nurses Association. “And I’m not sure where the problems are, if it’s just the record piece of it or what. As I understand it, we have the vaccine. It’s just a matter of preparing the places for people to actually get the vaccine.”
Questions and answers with a North Carolina doctor: When will the general public be able to receive the vaccine?
Due to limited supplies, North Carolina vaccinations are taking place in stages and health officials say it will likely be well into the spring that the general public will be able to receive the vaccine. North Carolina is currently in Phase 1a, which includes healthcare professionals, medical teams and first responders who care for patients with COVID-19, and long-term care workers and residents.
A spokesman for the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services said on Monday that some vaccine suppliers will begin Phase 1b on January 6, but most will begin on January 11.
The NCDHHS has an updated panel once a week that includes vaccines administered in the state. So far, the panel shows that 63,571 people have received the first dose. However, the NCDHHS said that the data on its panel do not include vaccines administered in long-term care settings and that they know that there are more vaccines administered than currently appear in the weekly report.
A NCDHHS spokesman also said on Monday that, in order to increase the pace of vaccinations, the NCDHHS sent a letter to all local hospitals and health departments warning them that future vaccine distributions will be modified with based on the number of vaccines administered that they informed the state.
When can you get the COVID-19 vaccine? Find out where you stand in line
“Putting it in the right place at the right time is almost impossible to do with perfection, so the fact that we are doing it a few months after the start of the coronavirus compared to 5-10 years, we are already ahead of schedule,” said Dr. Arthur Apolinario, who serves patients at Clinton Medical Clinic. He is also co-chair of the COVID-19 Vaccine Advisory Committee of the North Carolina Institute of Medicine, which provided feedback to the state on how to distribute the vaccine. “We know that there will be hiccups. We know that there are certain people who believe they should solve the problem sooner or earlier.”
ABC11 contacted Triangle hospitals to find out how many doses of the COVID-19 vaccine they administered. Duke Health administered more than 10,000 doses. They started the second dose on Sunday, together with the administrations of the first dose. UNC Health has vaccinated more than 13,000 employees so far. Second doses for the first recipients are scheduled to start on Tuesday.
Nearly 4,000 WakeMed employees received their first dose of vaccination with an additional 1,200 employees scheduled to be vaccinated (first dose) between Monday and Friday. They started taking the second dose this week.
Dr. Apolinário explained what will happen when the vaccine is offered to everyone in North Carolina.
“We will have a wider distribution,” said Dr. Apolinario. “It will not be just the health department and hospitals providing the vaccine at this point. The vaccines in the pipeline, all can be provided in medical offices, where we do not need special refrigerators to keep them cooler than current vaccines, so the distribution will be wider. We are thinking of talking to churches, of course, in primary care offices. “
Dr. Apolinario and Dr. Taylor work with COVID-19 patients and received their first dose of the vaccine. Dr. Taylor said he will receive his second dose on Friday.
“The first dose didn’t bother me at all,” said Dr. Taylor. “I didn’t feel any pain around the place. I didn’t have a fever, I really didn’t have any symptoms when I took the first dose. From what I understand, people who are taking the second dose have a little more local reaction to it, little more muscle soreness around the injection site, but that’s all. “
Former FDA commissioner Mark McClellan told ABC11 via email that North Carolina is addressing vaccine delivery through a public health approach and that the gap the state is facing is not uncommon at this point implementation.
In Wake County, they received 3,085 Pfizer vaccines in total and 1,065 were administered on Monday morning.
Former state director of health, Dr. Leah Devlin, was on the vaccine advisory committee COVID-19
attributes many of the problems to the lack of vaccines and said it is important for people to hear the news and watch when it is their turn.
“We have an effective vaccine that is incredible. We have a plan to put it into practice. The vaccine is arriving in our state every week. There will eventually be a vaccine for every person in North Carolina who is willing to take it,” said Dr. Devlin.
“The light is at the end of the tunnel. I think you heard Dr. Fauci say that, but we are still in the tunnel, so be patient, protect yourself, your family, your friends and listen when it’s time to try” said Dr. Devlin. “We are there, we will have the majority of the population immunized by summer, so this is great news,” said Dr. Devlin.
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