North Carolina will expand its COVID-19 vaccine protocols and offer shots to people 65 and older, Governor Roy Cooper said Thursday.
The change fits in with evolving federal guidelines, adding the younger age group of people to those 75 and older that the state has begun to vaccinate in recent days.
This would open the vaccine to as many as a million people in North Carolina. That’s a lot more than the state has injections on hand, so administering these doses can take weeks or more.
Cooper, who spoke Thursday morning before a virtual meeting of the NC Association of County Commissioners, said more details would come later. Minister of Health and Human Services Dr. Mandy Cohen schedules a press call for 2pm
“We are going to open up the criteria to people 65 and older,” said the governor. “So not only can people 75 and older get a COVID-19 vaccine now, but… those 65 and older will be too, along with health care providers.”
Cooper asked provincial commissioners to encourage their local health departments, which provide logistics for the vaccine rollout, which was slow at first, to use the doses as soon as possible. He asked the commissioners to “make that an absolute priority” and said they should also put pressure on health departments to register the doses given in the state’s vaccine tracking system.
Health departments have criticized that system for being time consuming and inconvenient, but the data sent back to the state is used to determine future vaccine allocations. Cooper encouraged county governments to ask for any assistance they need, including the logistics of setting appointments and entering data.
He also asked provincial commissioners to lead by example, with masks and social distance.
“The coming months will be tough,” said Cooper. “No matter how many people we vaccinate, we know we won’t be able to get the acquired immunity for several months. So our prevention efforts are more important than ever. I ask you all to give examples.”
He also reiterated a suggestion that they pass local ordinances to enforce masks and other mandates he has transferred from the state level. Some have criticized the governor for issuing statewide edicts but leaving it to the local authorities to enforce them, or leaving them largely unconstrained.
“We’re asking your sheriffs and others to help us with this because we can save lives,” Cooper said Thursday morning.
WRAL News Investigative Data Reporter Ali Ingersoll contributed to this report.