Raleigh, North Carolina – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has informed state health officials that winter storms in the United States are likely to delay the weekly shipment of coronavirus vaccine to North Carolina.
State Department of Health and Human Services officials said they were working with vaccination providers to minimize disruption.
Halifax County officials said they canceled vaccination appointments Wednesday because they have not received doses to give any shots.
“As soon as we get the vaccine, we will allow everyone who was scheduled to be able to prioritize the first possible vaccination date. We currently don’t know when we could get vaccinated,” Halifax County officials said in a statement.
Fort Bragg officials also stopped the planned vaccines on Wednesday because no vaccine was available either.
The impact on planned vaccination clinics for Wake County at Raleigh’s PNC Arena was not immediately known.
The clinics are scheduled for Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday, when 4,300 shots are expected to be administered. Officials said 3,325 doses will come from the county health department’s weekly allocation, and the other 975 come from the WakeMed allocation.
The shots will be administered by appointment only and county officials will contact people on the vaccination waiting list to assign them appointment schedules.
More than 2,000 people were inoculated against coronavirus at clinics outside the PNC Arena last Thursday and Saturday.
According to DHHS, more than 1.8 million vaccines have been administered in North Carolina since mid-December. This means that 12% of all North Carolinians have received at least one of the two required doses and that 5.4% are completely vaccinated.