“Our trends are worrisome,” said Dr. John Kerry, secretary of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. Mandy Cohen said at a news conference Tuesday. “People are going to the emergency department and the percentage of positives has increased. Many people are seriously ill with COVID.”
But Cooper said there is hope on the horizon with potential FDA authorization of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
Clock: Government RY Cooper explains COVID-19 vaccine distribution
He said North Carolina Pfizer is preparing for the vaccine, which requires excessive cold storage.
“We are a large state of rural areas that stretches for hundreds of miles,” he said. “Everyone is important, and we will work hard to meet the challenges that our geography presents.”
“The state expects to get that version of the vaccine, because” Pfizer was seeing authentication for the first time. So we think it’s the one that will be available and approved first, “Cooper said.
He said 84,800 is the number of doses the state has been told it will receive with the first shipment.
“That’s what we expect at the moment,” he said.
Cooper said shipments will be made as soon as the vaccine is approved, and then another allotment will be made when it becomes available.
“We know that when we get the first vaccine, we’ll just focus on hospitals,” he said. “That’s before with 85,000 doses.”
The state will then focus on people in long-term care settings.
After that, adults with two or more conditions that put them at risk for COVID-19, such as heart disease and diabetes, will have access to the vaccine.
Cooper added: “When we get the second vaccine, we will have a weekly dose of both vaccines and we will work through our population which we prefer. So we can’t say exactly when we will get two or more adults. But we think it will be in January. “
UNC Professor and former Wake County Director of Health Dr. Leah Devlin is on the NC Institute of Medicine Medicine COVID-19 vaccine committee.
Dr .. Devil said the committee helped decide who would get the vaccine first. The goal is to vaccinate 75% of people in North Carolina.
Dr. Dev. “It will be a while before we can all make it immune,” Devil said. “We hope that by summer, we will have enough vaccines to get everyone who takes it.”
Dr. Dev. Devil emphasized the need to reach out to marginalized, traditionally underprivileged communities and those who are reluctant to be vaccinated.
“We need to make sure that we, the people, are communicating well with the priority population so that people understand the information that this is a safe vaccine, an effective vaccine and when is your time and will be vaccinated.”
Q&A: Dr .. Leah Devlin talks of goals for COVID-19 distribution in North Carolina
Cooper said the sooner that state officials expect the vaccine is next week, mid-December 15 or 16.
Additional allocations will have to be made weekly.
Importantly, the governor assured residents that the vaccine would be free, even if their insurance did not cover them.
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