Raleigh, North Carolina – North Carolina health officials have adjusted the list of priorities for receiving coronavirus vaccines to align them with recent federal recommendations, authorities said Wednesday.
Last week, an advisory group from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its guidelines and called for people 75 years and older and older “essential” workers to get the vaccine sooner rather than later.
Because such a large group came online while the amount of vaccine available remains extremely limited, North Carolina has divided the various phases of the vaccination effort into subgroups, said Dr. Mandy Cohen, secretary of the Department of State Health and Human Services said Wednesday.
Healthcare workers treating patients with COVID-19, who began receiving the first doses of vaccine two weeks ago, and residents and staff of nursing homes and other long-term care centers, where vaccinations began on Monday, they remain in phase 1A of the highest priority group.
People 75 and older will be part of the first phase 1B group – Cohen said it will likely start the week of Jan. 11 – followed by other health workers and key front-line workers: police officers , firefighters, teachers, postal workers, official corrections, grocery employees and others belong to this group, aged 50 or over. The youngest front-line workers will be in the final group of phase 1B.
“It could be 2 million people in phase 1B, so it may take a while,” Cohen said.
Gov. Roy Cooper said several health care licensing boards will discipline providers who do not adhere to the list of priorities when it comes to vaccinating people.
“These are broad categories, and there will have to be some decisions at the local level by the people who administer this vaccine about whether or not someone falls into the category,” Cooper said.
“We can’t have people jumping the line and having their family members or friends, board members, donors jump,” Cohen added.
In phase 2, people aged 65 to 74 will be part of the first group, followed by anyone aged 16 to 64 who is at higher risk for complications from the virus. A third group in Phase 2 will include inmates and others living in nearby group settings, followed by essential workers who were not previously vaccinated.
Phase 3 still includes college students and high school students 16 and older. The vaccine is not yet approved for people under 16 years of age.
The final phase will include anyone who does not fall into any of the above groups.
“We have to protect each other every day, every week, every month. Vaccines offer hope, but that hope will take time to be fulfilled,” Cooper said.
Another 8,551 cases of coronavirus were reported across the state on Wednesday. That exceeds the previous day’s high in more than 100 cases, but DHHS officials said the figure was inflated because a technical error delayed data collection on Wednesday, so more than 24 hours of data were collected. .
On Tuesday, the state set a record 3,377 people hospitalized with COVID-19. That figure fell slightly on Wednesday to 3,339.
But the percentage of virus testing that returns positive stood at an alarming 14.8% on Wednesday, or about three times the target state officials have set to keep the virus under control.
“I’m very, very worried,” Cohen said, adding that anyone under the age of 40 who has recently met someone outside their home “should assume” that they are infected.
Despite worrying trend lines, fewer than 64,000 people across the state have received the first dose of vaccination in the first two weeks of the effort, although at that time some 230,000 doses were delivered to the state. .
Across the country, only about 2 million people have been vaccinated, far from the Trump administration’s $ 20 million goal by the end of the year.
Cohen explained that effort is a complex process that needs to be carefully monitored. Because vaccines are presented in units of 100 or more, doses must be planned and scheduled in advance to avoid wasting any vaccine.
In addition to that, hospitals and clinics that perform vaccines are also treating the increase in COVID-19 cases, not to mention last week, it was a holiday week, he said.
“We know we are making progress throughout this week and will move on to the next vaccination phase for our over-75s and subsequent weeks,” he said. “I know there will be a maturation process as we move forward. It’s new to all of us.”
But many of these seniors who follow the vaccine say they have no idea how they will get their vaccines.
“I don’t know how to get it. I certainly don’t,” said Fred Joyner, 80.
“I don’t know how to figure out how to do it,” agreed Barbara Dukes, 75.
Cohen said plans are still being made to notify and schedule seniors for their shootings, and officials hope to have more details before next week.
“As we move into Phase 1B, if you think about the size of a group of people over 75 and all of our front-line essential workers, that’s over a million people, and that’s not the number of the dose we have, “she said.
Dr. Allen Mask of WRAL said seniors (and others waiting their turn for vaccination) need to keep abreast of news about the launch of CDC, DHHS and local media vaccines. They should also let their doctors know they want to receive the vaccines.
“I would tell people to be patient (there’s a plan), but you have to be your best advocate,” Mask said.
Dukes and Joyner said they both want the vaccine.
“We should take it,” Joyner said. “We should take it. We should take it.”