40 people vaccinated on 1st day in county

Murphy – Three Cherokee County Health Department employees were the first in Cherokee County to receive a vaccine for COVID-19.
    Lindsey Roberts, a nurse at the health was officially the first, but Dr. Mary Lane and Health Director David Badger were right beside her getting their shots on Dec. 23, too. Throughout the day, a total 40 people were vaccinated.
    “I think it went over very well,” Badger said. “This is something completely new.”
    The shot available at the health department is the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. He said putting a needle in someone is a small part of the process – there’s documentation that needs to be done, as well as observation.
    So far, no one who received the vaccine in the county has displayed or reported any side effects. Badger said he understands side effects are more likely after the second dose.
    The health department did not administer any vaccines Thursday through Monday, as it was closed for the Christmas holiday. Health department staff is determining the most effective ways to administer the vaccine to be able to serve more people in one day, if possible. The health department will be closed again Friday for New Year’s Day.
    The health department is only accepting vaccination appointments for those in the state’s Phase 1a – health-care workers interacting with and caring for COVID patients or cleaning spaces used by COVID patients, as well as long-term care staff and residents. Many health department employees – including Roberts, Lane and Badger – were considered part of this group as they are key to the county’s COVID response and involved in the testing process for COVID.
    The health department performs about 90 percent of the COVID tests in the county, Badger said.
    “It was exciting to get it,” he said, adding that getting the vaccine was one step to moving the county past the virus. “The real takeaway is it’s going to take a lot of people in Cherokee County to get the vaccine.”
    Badger said all he felt was a soreness in his arm for about 24 hours after getting the vaccine, typical of any vaccination. He didn’t even feel the sensation of the vaccine being injected, as can be felt with the flu vaccine.
    Badger understood it is natural to have concerns about something new like the COVID vaccines. He advised that everyone educate themselves about the vaccines from legitimate sources, noting that it’s important for those with questions to have a conversation with their primary care physician or other trusted health-care professional.
    As of Monday morning, Erlanger Western Carolina Hospital in Peachtree was awaiting its first shipment of the vaccine and was scheduling employee clinics to begin administering the vaccine today. Vaccination will not be a requirement for employment for the hospital’s 417 employees.
    Long-term care facilities’ vaccination were being managed through a federal contract with Walgreens and CVS. Murphy Rehabilitation & Nursing will get its first vaccinations Thursday. Walgreens has scheduled three vaccine clinics for the nursing home – the other two will be held Jan. 28 and Feb. 25.
    The health department does not need to wait for the state to authorize moving on to the next phase, but Badger said because of the fluid nature of the process, he could not estimate when vaccinations would be available for those in the next phase. Once the health department feels they have reached everyone willing to be vaccinated in the 1a category, it can move on to 1b, or those at highest risk of severe illness and at highest risk of exposure - adults with two or more chronic conditions, essential frontline workers (police, food processors, teachers) and healthcare workers with tow or more chronic conditions, and those who work or live in prisons, jails and homeless shelters.
    To determine who qualifies for the current phase, the state’s COVID management system asks a series of questions when an individual calls to make an appointment, and the system’s logarithm will confirm the individual is part of the current phase. Badger said the health department would announce vaccination information on social media, and advised the public to also follow local media outlets for vaccination information.
    As of Monday afternoon, the county had 103 active cases. Since March, the county has had 1,259 total cases, including 19 people from other states who tested positive while in the county, and 22 people who passed away after testing positive. There were at least three people hospitalized Monday morning, according to information Badger had available to him.
    In the Dec. 22 alert system report from the state, Cherokee County went from being designated as a red county to an orange county. While the percent of positive cases improved from 10.3 percent to 7.5 percent, the hospital’s impact went from low to moderate.
    Using data collected from 1,216 cases, the state reported Monday that 9 percent of the county’s cases were those ages 0-17, 10 percent were ages 18-24, 28 percent were ages 25-49, 25 percent were ages 50-64, 15 percent were ages 65-74 and 12 percent were ages 75 or older.
    Anyone who experiences symptoms should contact their primary care provider, the health department or urgent care. COVID-19 symptoms range from mild to severe and may appear 2-14 days after exposure, while flu symptoms appear 1-4 days after exposure.
    According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, both COVID-19 and flu symptoms may include fever, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fatigue, sore throat, congestion or runny nose, muscle aches, headache, and nausea or vomiting, diarrhea. COVID-19 symptoms may also include a new loss of taste or smell.
    Anyone can have mild to severe symptoms, but older adults and those with underlying medical conditions appear to be at higher risk for severe illness. The CDC said the virus spreads very easily, and risk of spreading the virus increases the closer and longer a person’s interaction with another is.
    As of Monday, North Carolina had 520,716 confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 and 6,561 deaths related to the virus since the beginning of March. More than 403,000 of those cases were presumed to be recovered.
    More than 6.7 million state residents have been tested for the virus. In the last week, 9-14 percent of the tests returned positive daily.
    As of Dec. 19, there were only 17 people who tested positive for the flu and one flu-associated death across the state this season, according to the N.C. Department of Health & Human Services.