COVID vaccine live updates: Here’s what to know in North Carolina on March 12
We’re tracking the most up-to-date information about the coronavirus and vaccines in North Carolina. Check back for updates.
Case count tops 881,000
At least 881,823 people in North Carolina have tested positive for the coronavirus and 11,633 have died since last March, according to state health officials.
The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services reported 1,998 new coronavirus cases on Friday, down from 2,061 the day before.
Forty-one coronavirus-related deaths were reported Friday. Deaths don’t all occur on the day the state reports them. The state health department revises its daily figures as information becomes available.
At least 1,037 people in North Carolina were reported hospitalized with the coronavirus as of Friday, down sightly from 1,039 reported the day before.
As of Wednesday, the latest day for which data are available, 3.7% of coronavirus tests were reported positive. Health officials have said 5% or lower is the target rate to control the spread of the virus.
More than 3 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in North Carolina, and 1.2 million people have received both doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine.
School reopening law will bring changes
Gov. Roy Cooper signed legislation Thursday that requires North Carolina school districts to offer in-person instruction to every student this school year.
Under the law, elementary school students and special-education students must be offered full-time, in-person instruction under Plan A. Middle and high school students can use Plan A or Plan B, which requires 6 feet of social distancing, The News & Observer reported.
School districts in Beaufort and Henderson counties have already approved plans to offer daily in-person instruction to all grade levels.
In the Triangle, Wake County is still weighing whether to switch from Plan B to Plan A. The Wake County Board of Education is scheduled to discuss the matter its March 16 meeting.
Durham Public Schools plan to stay with Plan B, and the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school system will have to make major adjustments since it didn’t plan to bring students back for full-time, daily in-person instruction at this time.
NC expects to receive more COVID vaccine doses
North Carolina is expected to get more weekly COVID-19 vaccine doses by early April, according to health officials.
The state could receive up to 400,000 first doses per week, up from the 223,120 doses given out this week, The News & Observer reported Friday. Some providers have higher capacity or haven’t received allocations due to limited supply.
“We want our capacity to be far ahead of our supply,” said Kody Kinsley, deputy secretary of the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. “So that way, as it ramps up over the coming weeks and months, we’ll be ready.”
Kinsley also said vaccines could be allocated differently in a future plan that would shift efforts from providing doses based on a county’s population and instead focus on the number of people who haven’t been vaccinated in an area.
NC spends $1.7 billion more in COVID relief
Gov. Roy Cooper signed a $1.7 billion COVID-19 relief bill into law on Thursday — the second spending bill passed by state legislators this year and the fourth since the pandemic began last March.
The bill was fast-tracked in the General Assembly over just a few days, The News & Observer reported.
It includes $292 million for higher education emergency relief, $12 million for emergency food assistance, $603 million for coronavirus testing and tracing, and $40 million for summer learning programs.
“While I will ask legislators to revisit some areas of this legislation, including changes necessary to quickly deliver rental assistance, these funds will bring needed relief for people who are struggling, schools and small businesses as we strive to emerge from this pandemic,” Cooper said in a statement.
Full passenger train service will resume
Passenger trains in North Carolina will begin running at full schedule again starting April 5.
That means Amtrak will resume a third daily round trip of the Piedmont train between Raleigh and Charlotte, The News & Observer reported. Transportation officials canceled two of the three round trips when the pandemic started last March, and the third was suspended in May.
But the state restored some service as demand rebounded, including resuming one daily round trip of the Piedmont in August and adding a second in December. Though ridership is about half of what it was before the pandemic, it increased about 50% between September and the end of February, according to The N&O.
“The data on ridership is trending up,” said Jason Orthner, director of NCDOT’s rail division. “All the numbers, all the trends, look good for bringing back the service on April 5.”
People with high-risk medical conditions move up vaccine list
People with underlying health conditions that leave them at high risk from COVID-19 will be eligible for the vaccine a week early, Gov. Roy Cooper announced Thursday.
Those individuals are in Group 4, along with those living in close group settings and essential workers who don’t meet the criteria of a front-line worker. The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services estimates that the group totals as many as 4.1 million people.
Group 4 was initially scheduled to begin getting the coronavirus vaccine on March 24, The News & Observer reported.
Now people with underlying health conditions, homeless people or those living in group settings will be eligible on March 17. Other essential workers will be eligible beginning April 7.
In Charlotte, health officials caution it could be difficult to get a vaccine on March 17 given the limited vaccine supply and lengthy wait lists, The Observer reported. Mecklenburg Public Health Director Gibbie Harris said they are still immunizing people in the “very large” Group 3.
“Obviously Group 3 hasn’t been opened for long. ... We’re doing our best to stay focused on that right, but we are going to do everything we can — working with our healthcare partners, as well as the other vaccinators in our community — to make it available to Group 4 as quickly as we can,” she said.
NC State plans in-person graduation
N.C. State University will host an in-person graduation ceremony at Carter-Finley Stadium this spring.
Officials announced Thursday the school will host two outdoor commencement ceremonies, echoing similar plans from UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke.
“We understand how difficult the past year has been for so many in the Wolfpack community, including our graduates and their families,” Chancellor Randy Woodson said in a community-wide message. “We are proud of how hard our students have worked to push through the challenges and continue making progress toward their degrees.”
Graduation speakers haven’t been decided, The News & Observer reported, and most departments will hold their graduation ceremonies virtually.
Wake schools report COVID clusters
Two schools in Wake County have reported coronavirus clusters, including 29 cases at a private school.
There have been 24 cases among students and five cases among staff at Cary Christian School, according to state health officials.
Though not on the latest DHHS report of ongoing clusters at child care centers and schools, Lincoln Heights Elementary School in Fuquay-Varina notified families on Tuesday of an active cluster. Health officials define a cluster as five or more linked cases in the same facility within 14 days, The News & Observer reported.
There have been eight COVID-19 cases at Lincoln Heights, including six among students and two among staff, since Feb. 26.
COVID may have been ‘guise’ in Wake gun permit delay, judge says
A federal judge says a North Carolina sheriff may have used COVID-19 to hide that his office couldn’t process the volume of gun permit applications that came in last year.
U.S. District Court Judge Louise Flanagan listed the possibility in a Feb. 20 court order that said a lawsuit against Sheriff Gerald Baker could proceed.
“Based on the allegations in the complaint, it is plausible to infer that defendant suspended acceptance of applications due to inability to process a high volume of applicants at a time of acute public need, under the guise of generally articulated ‘public health concerns,’” Flanagan wrote, according to The News & Observer.
In March 2020, Baker announced his office was suspending gun permit applications for 38 days due to increased interest and concerns that lines wouldn’t allow for social distancing.
Days later, several groups and a Wake County resident sued Baker and said the suspension violated constitutional rights.
Duke leaves ACC basketball tournament
The Duke University men’s basketball team said it was leaving the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament due to the coronavirus.
The Blue Devils didn’t play against Florida State University on Thursday after a positive test within the Duke men’s basketball program and contact tracing would make several players unavailable.
The team pulled out of the tournament after Duke University on Wednesday threatened to start a curfew, restrict campus access and cancel face-to-face classes after reporting spikes in coronavirus cases.
Duke has reported more than 100 student coronavirus cases since Friday. Most of those cases are tied to off-campus Greek life events, including parties and fraternity rush activities, according to the school.
The university said its Office of Conduct and Community Standards and authorities are investigating the incidents.
This story was originally published March 12, 2021 at 7:27 AM.
