At least 4 North Carolina counties open COVID vaccine eligibility to all adults
Health officials in North Carolina have said the goal is for every adult in the state to be eligible for the coronavirus vaccine by early May.
But that’s already a reality for a few county health departments and private hospital systems, particularly in more rural counties.
At least four of North Carolina’s 100 counties are now allowing individuals in Group 5 to get vaccinated, meaning anyone over the age of 18 — or, in some cases, 16 — is eligible, according to announcements from local health departments and hospital systems. They include Craven, Greene, Cumberland and Rockingham counties in Eastern and Central North Carolina.
The rest of the state is currently vaccinating individuals in Groups 1 through 4a, which includes health care workers, adults over 65, frontline essential workers and adults with underlying health conditions, according to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.
People with high-risk medical conditions and those living in close group settings recently became eligible when Gov. Roy Cooper bumped them up the list last week by dividing the estimated 4.1 million people included in Group 4 into two parts.
Other essential workers in Group 4 will be eligible beginning April 7.
Cooper has said he expects all adults in North Carolina will be eligible to receive the vaccine by May 1 — the deadline set by President Joe Biden.
When asked about some counties expanding eligibility to Group 5 ahead of schedule, Cooper told The News & Observer last week that the goal is to increase vaccine supply and “move as quickly as we can.”
“We want to provide for some local flexibility here, and obviously, our goal is to have a vaccine available for all adults by May 1. So some areas may have moved faster than the others,” Cooper said. “We want to make sure, however, that they concentrate on Groups 1 through 4, making sure they seek out people who have these pre-existing conditions, who are front-line workers who are health care workers who are 65 and over. We want to keep pushing them to do that.”
Craven County on the coast of North Carolina, which is home to about 102,000 people, was ready for Group 5 nearly two months early, according to its Facebook page.
The county health department began advertising vaccine eligibility for all groups starting March 2, and its website currently lists appointments for all “individuals 18 years of age and older.” According to N.C. DHHS, nearly 24% of the county was at least partially vaccinated as of Monday.
Nearby Greene County followed suit on March 17, according to a news release on the health department website. By state health officials’ count, close to 22% of the population there has been partially vaccinated.
Just 22,000 people live in Greene County, according to U.S. Census records.
Cape Fear Valley Health in Cumberland County opened vaccine appointments to those in Group 5 on March 18 — just as it crossed the 100,000 doses threshold. Cumberland is home to Fayetteville and is the largest of the four counties with about 335,500 residents.
Less than 15% of the population in Cumberland County have been partially vaccinated, according to N.C. DHHS, and about 10% have been fully vaccinated.
Chris Tart, vice president of professional services at Cape Fear Valley Health, told WNCN the decision to expand eligibility was “partially because of a decrease in demand from the other parts of the local population.”
“Rather than have doses go unused, we want to give more people the chance to get their vaccine,” he said. “We hope this will encourage more people to roll up their sleeve.”
Tart also told The Fayetteville Observer that Cape Fear Valley Health has been “consistently two or three weeks ahead of the rest of the state.”
“We’re still following the plan,” he said, according to the newspaper. “We’re just going a little early.”
Rockingham County on the Virginia border, which has just under 310,000 residents, opened vaccine eligibility to Group 5, according to a Facebook post Monday. Health officials report about 17% of the county has received at least one shot.
Both Cumberland and Rockingham counties are vaccinating individuals 16 and older.
News & Observer reporter Zachery Eanes contributed to this story.
