Local health departments reschedule appointments amid COVID-19 vaccine delays
COVID-19 vaccine doses that were not shipped during the week of Feb. 15 due to the snow and ice storm that swept much of the nation are set to start arriving in North Carolina on Monday, the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services announced Friday.
Andy Slavitt, the White House’s senior adviser on the COVID-19 response, said during a Friday briefing that shipments were held up out of concern for drivers’ safety and to avoid vaccines expiring amid road closures and logistical difficulties.
“The vaccines are sitting safe and sound in our factories and hubs, ready to be shipped out as soon as weather allows,” Slavitt said.
North Carolina is waiting for its entire Moderna allocation, including 99,500 first and 63,800 second doses. The state has received some of its Pfizer first dose allocation, but is still awaiting 21,450 doses and all of its 63,375 second dose allocation, according to a DHHS spokeswoman said Friday. Locally, those delays mean rescheduled appointments in Durham and Orange counties., while Wake County Public Health shifted a drive-thru mass vaccination event at PNC Arena from Thursday to Monday.
Friday, Wake County spokeswoman Stacy Beard told The News & Observer the health department had received all of its 6,825 Pfizer first dose allocation and would distribute them Friday and Saturday at the PNC Arena as planned.
“Our system was built to react and adjust to last-minute changes from the start — so whether it’s weather, late shipments, less state allotment than we expected or asked for — this has been our modus operandi since the day the first vial arrived,” Beard wrote in an email to The News & Observer.
The arrival of Wake’s Pfizer first doses lowered the number outstanding statewide to 14,625 doses.
Wake County is still waiting for a 1,100-dose allocation of Moderna vaccine, Beard wrote, but did not yet know when it might arrive.
The Moderna packaging factory was just coming back online, Slavitt said Friday, and planned to package vaccine kits through Sunday. They will start to be sent out Sunday night, Slavitt added, with deliveries taking place next Monday through Wednesday.
During the week of Feb. 22, Wake will receive an additional 8,380 first doses of COVID-19 vaccine, up from a scheduled 7,925 doses the week of Feb. 15. Of the Feb. 22 doses, 3,900 will be administered at the PNC Arena during events on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday, according to Beard.
Wake County plans to open its vaccine waitlist on Monday to those deemed frontline essential workers.
In Durham County, the Department of Public Health has not received any of its 1,300-dose Moderna allocation, according to Alecia Smith, a department spokeswoman. The county is expecting its vaccine to arrive next Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning at the latest, according to Smith.
Some of the health department’s first-dose appointments scheduled for the week of Feb. 15 were shifted to the Southern High School site where the county is working with Duke to administer vaccine. Others are being shifted to the health department site.
“All affected individuals will be able to receive their vaccination no later than Thursday of next week (Feb. 25),” Smith wrote.
The Orange County Health Department was still waiting Friday for its 600-dose allocation of Moderna vaccine, Todd McGee, a health department spokesman, told The News & Observer.
An event originally scheduled for Saturday has been moved to Feb. 27, McGee said. While 400 of Orange County’s doses were slated for use at that event, the other 200 are set to be administered at the health department. Those doses will be made available quickly once they arrive, McGee wrote in an email.
“We have the capacity to ramp up distribution, so handling two weeks’ worth of vaccine in one week won’t be an issue assuming that is what happens,” McGee wrote.
This story was originally published February 20, 2021 at 9:29 AM.