Murphy – Christmas came early at the Cherokee County Health Department when the first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine arrived Monday morning.
“It was exciting,” Health Director David Badger said. “We’ve been anticipating this for the past week and a half. It feels good in a way because it’s a step forward. It’s exciting.”
Erlanger Western Carolina Hospital in Peachtree and both nursing homes – Murphy Rehabilitation & Nursing in Peachtree and Valley View Care & Rehabilitation in Andrews – were scheduled to get their own direct allotments of vaccine. The health department’s allocation will target those not in those communities.
The state’s vaccination plan has four phases, with the vaccine being available to those most at risk first, as supplies will be limited. Health-care workers, including nursing home staff and residents, will be the first to receive them in Phase 1a.
The health department’s first shipment had 600 doses of the Moderna vaccine, which was approved for emergency use authorization by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration on Friday. It is for use in adults ages 18 and older and requires two doses 28 days apart. The health department will receive the 600 second doses in about 28 days.
Badger said a large portion of the health department staff would fall under 1a. They would work with the hospital and nursing homes to make sure everyone at the highest risk who wants a vaccine gets one.
Anyone who gets vaccinated will be observed for 15 minutes to make sure there are no adverse reactions, Badger said. Their information will be recorded in a system that will notify them when it’s time to get their second dose of the vaccine.
The vaccine is free; however, there is an administration charge which insurance will cover. Anyone who does not have insurance will not be charged the administration fee. Individuals will not have to pay anything out of pocket, Badger said.
Once the health department feels they have reached everyone in the 1a category, it can move on to 1b – adults with two or more chronic conditions, essential frontline workers (police, food processors, teachers), health-care workers not in 1a and those who work or live in prisons, jails and homeless shelters. The health department does not need to wait for the state to authorize the next phase.
Badger said the health department would announce vaccination information soon. Appointments will be needed, and he encouraged everyone to be patient.
Badger was not sure how many phases the first 600 doses would last through, knowing not everyone in the highest risk categories may be ready.
“I would hope it would not get us into Phase 2,” he said. “Because that would not be a good sign.”
Only 53 hospitals across the state received the Pfizer vaccine last week, with hospital workers in Chapel Hill, Charlotte and Durham getting to be the first in the state to be vaccinated. Kimberly Shepherd, pharmacist in charge at Erlanger Western Carolina Hospital in Peachtree, did not know when the local hospital would receive vaccines nor how many.
According to the plan for Phase 1a, health-care workers at high risk for COVID-19 exposure were to be prioritized. That includes those caring for COVID patients, as well as those who clean areas where COVID patients were admitted.
Erlanger Western Carolina has 417 total employees. They will not be required to be vaccinated to maintain employment, Shepherd said.
Last week, Gov. Roy Cooper said the state receives information on the following week’s shipment Friday. He was hoping that by the end of this week, a vaccine – either the Pfizer one or Moderna – would be in all 100 counties. Dr. Mandy Cohen, secretary of the N.C. Department of Health & Human Services, said the type of vaccine each county gets would be related to logistics, with counties with smaller health departments getting the Moderna vaccine.
As of Monday afternoon, the county had 83 active cases. Since March, the county has had 1,169 total cases, including 19 people from other states who tested positive while in the county, and 21 people who passed away after testing positive. There were four people hospitalized Monday morning, according to information Badger had available.
Using data collected from 1,125 cases, the state reported Monday that 9 percent of the county’s cases were those ages 0-17, 9 percent were ages 18-24, 28 percent were ages 25-49, 25 percent were ages 50-64, 15 percent were ages 65-74 and 13 percent were ages 75 or older.
From Monday to Sunday, 61 people tested positive, and 600 tested negative, a rate of 9.2 percent positive. Badger noted Cherokee County is usually in the 8-10 percent range, depending on the week, but that he’s still shooting for a 5 percent rate.
“I’m glad to see people are getting tested,” Badger said, adding that he hopes it continues. “That’s how we’re going to stop the spread.”
He said most people tested in the past week were contacts of cases or were experiencing symptoms. Badger added that the health department often sees people who thought their symptoms were something else, like a cold or a stomach virus. While colds were something that wouldn’t slow us down before COVID, sinus-related issues are trending as the most common they are seeing with COVID.
“It’s something to be concerned about,” he said.
Anyone can have mild to severe symptoms, but older adults and those with underlying medical conditions appear to be at higher risk.
As of Monday, North Carolina had 483,647 confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 and 6,240 deaths related to the virus since the beginning of March. More than 403,000 of those cases were presumed to be recovered.
More than 6.4 million state residents have been tested for the virus. In the last week, 10-11 percent of the tests returned positive daily. As of Dec. 12, there were only 16 people who tested positive for the flu and one flu-associated death across the state this season, according to Health & Human Services.
1st vaccine doses arrive in county for COVID-19
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