Raleigh, NC – North Carolina health officials have adjusted the priority list for receiving coronavirus vaccinations to reflect recent federal recommendations, officials said Wednesday.
An advisory group from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week updated its guidelines, calling on people 75 or older and more “essential” workers to get the vaccine earlier than before.
Because such a large group has been lined up while the amount of vaccines available remains extremely limited, North Carolina has divided the different phases of the vaccination effort into subgroups, said Dr. Mandy Cohen, secretary of the State Department of Health and Human Services, said Wednesday.
Health professionals dealing with COVID-19 patients, who received their first vaccine doses two weeks ago, and residents and staff of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, where vaccinations began Monday, remain in Phase 1A with the highest priority. group.
People 75 and older will be in the first Phase 1B group – Cohen said this will likely begin the week of January 11th – followed by other health professionals and key frontline workers – police officers, firefighters, teachers, mail carriers, corrections officers, shop assistants and others belong to this group – aged 50 and over. Younger frontline workers will be in the final phase 1B group.
“It could be 2 million people in phase 1B, so it may take a while,” Cohen said.
Gov. Roy Cooper said several health licensing agencies will take disciplinary action that fails to adhere to the priority list in vaccinating people.
“These are broad categories and there will have to be some decisions to be made at the local level by people administering this vaccine whether someone falls into that category or not,” Cooper said.
“We can’t make people jump the line and pull their relatives or friends, board members, donors over,” Cohen added.
In stage 2, people aged 65 to 74 will be in the first group, followed by anyone aged 16 to 64 with a medical condition that puts them at higher risk for complications from the virus. A third group in phase 2 includes prisoners and others living in close groups, followed by key workers who have not been previously vaccinated.
Stage 3 still includes college students and high school students aged 16 and over. The vaccine has not yet been approved for anyone younger than 16 years old.
The final stage includes anyone who doesn’t fall into any of the previous groups.
“We have to protect ourselves and each other every day, every week, every month. The vaccines offer hope, but it will take time for this hope to be fulfilled,” Cooper said.
A further 8,551 cases of coronavirus were reported on Wednesday. That surpasses the previous one-day record by more than 100 cases, but DHHS officials said the figure was too high because a technical glitch delayed data collection on Wednesday, so that more than 24 hours of data was collected.
On Tuesday, the state set a record for people hospitalized with COVID-19, at 3,377. That figure fell slightly to 3,339 on Wednesday.
But the percentage of virus tests that come back positive was at an alarming rate of 14.8 percent on Wednesday, or about three times the target law officials have set to keep the virus in check.
“I’m very, very worried,” Cohen said, adding that anyone under the age of 40 who has recently met with someone outside of their household “must assume” they are infected.
Despite the troubling trend lines, less than 64,000 people statewide received their first vaccination dose in the first two weeks of the effort, although about 230,000 doses were delivered to the state during that time.
Across the country, only about 2 million people have been vaccinated – far less than the Trump administration’s target of 20 million by the end of the year.
Cohen explained that the effort is a complex process that must be carefully monitored. Because the vaccines are delivered in units of 100 or more, doses must be planned and planned in advance to avoid potential wastage of vaccines.
In addition, the hospitals and clinics running the vaccinations are also dealing with the increase in COVID-19 cases, not to mention that last week was a holiday week, she said.
“We know we’re growing over the course of this week, and we’re moving into the next phase of vaccinating our 75-year-olds and older and the weeks after that,” she said. “I know this process will mature as we move forward. It’s new to all of us.”
But many of those seniors lining up for the vaccine say they have no idea how they will get their injections.
“I don’t know how to go about it. I certainly don’t know,” said 80-year-old Fred Joyner.
“I don’t know how to figure out how to get it done,” agreed 75-year-old Barbara Dukes.
Cohen said plans to notify and schedule seniors for their shots are still being worked out, and officials hope to have more details next week.
“When we get to Phase 1B, when you consider how big a group of people is of over 75s and all of our essential primary care workers, that’s over a million people, and that’s not the number of doses we have, ” she said.
Dr. WRAL’s Allen Mask said seniors – and others awaiting their turn for vaccination – should stay up to date with news of vaccine introduction from the CDC, DHHS and local media. They should also let their doctors know they want to take the pictures.
“I would tell people to be patient – there is a plan – but you have to be your own best lawyer,” Mask said.
Dukes and Joyner said they both want the vaccine.
“We have to take it,” said Joyner. “We should take it. We should take it.”