38th resident dies from COVID-19
Murphy – As North Carolina implements its COVID-19 vaccine lottery program, one local expert is not expecting a huge impact on vaccine numbers locally.
After Gov. Roy Cooper announced the state’s new “Your Shot at a Million” program in a press conference Thursday, Cherokee County Health Director David Badger said he did not expect the potential to win $1 million for receiving the vaccine would have much effect on vaccine numbers locally. However, he supported any program that would encourage people to get the shot.
“It’s not going to hurt,” he said, “and everybody whose gotten the shot before’s names are automatically entered into the pot, from what I understand.”
The matter is still of extreme interest locally, as a 38th county resident has died from complications of COVID-19, according to a release. The individual was in their early 70s.
The new state program is offering four drawings each for $1 million for North Carolinians over the age of 18 who have received the shot. An additional four $125,000 scholarship drawings will also take place for ages 12-17. The $1 million drawings will be administrated by the North Carolina Lottery, while the scholarships will fall under the jurisdiction of the N.C. Education Assistance Authority. The first drawing is scheduled for June 23. Subsequent drawings will take place every other week until Aug. 4.
All North Carolina citizens who have received the jab in the state have been entered once, while those receiving the shot on or after June 10 will be entered twice. Winners will not be allowed to stay anonymous, and winnings will be subject to tax.
“It’s fun and exciting, I guess, and if it compels someone to come in and get a vaccine, that’s cool, and I’m sure that there are some people that no matter how much money there is on the line, they’re not going to get it,” Badger said. “It’s all personal choices.”
He said that as of Friday morning, the health department had not seen any substantial increase in the number of people seeking out the vaccine. He didn’t expect the lottery to sway large groups of people toward the vaccine, at least not in Cherokee County.
“Obviously, we’re kind of trending in the right direction with percent positives and stuff like that,” Badger said.
However, he said the number of COVID-19 tests administered had dropped substantially.
“I think really what we’re seeing a lot of is people aren’t coming in to get tested until they’re fairly symptomatic,” Badger said. “I think if you’re symptomatic for anything a quick COVID test will rule it out. It’s never going to hurt anything.”
Badger also said the health department had administered some doses of the Pfizer vaccine to ages 12-17, but that demand for the shot had not been great in that age group. He said the county had not yet made it through all 200 of the doses it received after the Pfizer vaccine was approved for those under 18.
“It’s not flying off the shelves by any stretch of the imagination,” he said. “Maybe some of that will change as we get closer to going back to school and more and more people start incorporating that into their return to school stuff.”
There were nine new confirmed positive tests results in the county last week. Seven had no known source of transmission, while two are contacts to previously reported cases. All have developed symptoms, none are hospitalized and all have been isolated.
Elsewhere in North Carolina, Cooper extended his COVID-19-related emergency orders to July 30 on Friday despite calls to end the state’s emergency declaration.
Cooper declared a public health State of Emergency in March 2020, putting restrictions in place intended to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Cooper gradually has reduced restrictions as North Carolina’s COVID-19 trends have decreased amid a growing number of vaccinations.
Some Republican members of the General Assembly looking to lessen the governor’s power to close businesses during an emergency have called on Cooper to end the emergency declaration as neighboring states do the same. However, Cooper said his executive orders, tied to the declaration, increase access to supplies and equipment and allows the state to draw down federal funds needed to respond to the pandemic.