Gov. Cooper To Mobilize National Guard To Help With COVID-19 Vaccination Efforts In NC
RALEIGH, NC – Gov. Roy Cooper is mobilizing the National Guard to help with North Carolina’s COVID-19 vaccination efforts. In a tweet earlier Tuesday (Jan. 5) the Governor announced:
Ensuring COVID-19 vaccines are administered quickly is our top priority right now. We will use all resources and personnel needed. I’ve mobilized the NC National Guard to provide support to local health providers as we continue to increase the pace of vaccinations. – RC
— Governor Roy Cooper (@NC_Governor) January 5, 2021
North Carolina is among the seven states with the lowest COVID-19 vaccination rate in the country, the CDC reported Monday (Jan. 4), with less than 1 percent of the population being vaccinated so far.
The CDC vaccination dashboard shows North Carolina has given the first dose of the vaccination to 966 per 100,000 people.
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services reported that 109,799 people have received the first dose of the vaccine so far in the state. That number may be underreported because there could be up to a 72-hour lag in reporting.
That number also doesn’t include the 165,990 doses that have been allocated for long-term care facilities. As of Jan. 4, CVS and Walgreens reported to NCDHHS that there were 13,338 doses administered through the federal program to long-term care facilities in NC.
Early recipients of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine started receiving their second dose Tuesday (Jan. 5) at UNC Medical Center.
The hospital said it has vaccinated 14,000 employees since the vaccine became available weeks ago. Those employees are now receiving the follow-up dose, as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration.
UNC Health said employees at UNC REX in Raleigh will begin receiving their second doses Thursday (Jan. 7).
Cooper said utilizing the National Guard will help local health providers increase the pace of vaccinations.
COVID-19 Update
The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 in North Carolina continues to rise.
On Tuesday, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services reported that there were 3,781 people in the hospital with the virus. That’s up 146 from Monday and a record thus far in the pandemic.
382 confirmed COVID-19 patients were admitted in the last 24 hours. The percent of positive tests is at 16.2 percent, well over the state’s goal of 5 percent. A total of 5,285 new cases were reported on Tuesday. 55 more deaths were also reported. That brings the number in the state to 6,996 since the start of the pandemic.