North Carolina Will See Increase In COVID-19 Vaccine Doses

NORTH CAROLINA — North Carolina will soon see an increase in the number of first doses of COVID vaccine it will receive from the federal government, Gov. Roy Cooper said Wednesday.

Earlier this week, DHHS announced that going forward, North Carolina would only receive 120,000 first doses of vaccine from the federal government each week for allocation across the state. The news of increased supply announced Tuesday raises that weekly allotment to around 140,000 doses.

"The sticking point right now for our state and the nation is not enough vaccine," Cooper said. "We do have thousands of shots, but there are millions of people who need two of them."

The news comes as the state reported nearly 6,000 new confirmed cases in the span of a day and that about 11 percent of tests conducted in the state were positive, according to North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services data. As of Jan. 27, at least 3,305 individuals in the state were hospitalized for coronavirus illness, and at least 8,915 deaths attributed to the virus in the state since March.

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After a week of racing to exhaust North Carolina's supply on hand of first doses of COVID vaccine, state public health officials indicated Tuesday that the state was bracing for very limited first-dose supplies sent to the state this week, made even tighter due to a scheduled mass vaccination eventscheduled at Charlotte's Bank of America Stadium this weekend.

As of Wednesday, North Carolina healthcare providers had administered about 99 percent of the nearly 795,000 first doses of COVID vaccine on hand in a bid to demonstrate to the federal government it was ready for increased vaccine shipment to the state.

"Yesterday we got some good news when we learned that the federal government will increase vaccine shipments to states by 16 percent over the next three weeks. That will help, but we still need much more," Cooper said.

When announcing the increase Tuesday, President Joe Biden addressed the need for greater federal transparency about supply levels and increase coordination with state governors.

"I think we’re getting this coordinated in a way that there’s increased cooperation and confidence," Biden said. "But until now, we’ve had to guess how much vaccine to expect for the next week. And that’s what the governors had to do: 'How much am I getting next week?' This is unacceptable."

Beginning this week, the federal government will provide states with a reliable three-week supply forecast," Biden said.

"This is going to help make sure governors, mayors, and local leaders have greater certainty around supply so they can carry out their plans to vaccinate as many people as possible," Biden said. "So, we will both increase the supply in the short term by more than 15 percent and give our states and local partners more certainty about when the deliveries will arrive. These two steps are going to help increase our prospects of hitting and — or exceeding, God willing, the ambitious goal of 100 million shots in 100 days."

Skyla Luckey, Patch Staff, contributed

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