WADESBORO — Although the vaccine is being rolled out in the county and hundreds anxiously wait to receive a shot, COVID-19 continues to run rampant in Anson, bringing the death toll to more than 40.
As of Jan. 25, the Anson County Health Department reported 1,957 total COVID-19 cases and 42 deaths. Three of those deaths occurred in one week. These latest numbers bring Anson County to 8% of the population having tested positive for the virus.
The virus continues to spread rapidly even though both the Health Department and Atrium Health Anson began vaccinating residents and health care workers.
Through Jan. 21, 737 Anson County residents have received the first of two doses of the vaccine, according to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services website. Both the Health Department and the hospital are giving out the Moderna vaccine.
Right now, those who are getting vaccination fall under Group 1 or Group 2 in Phase 1 of the state’s roll out plan. This includes adults who are 65 years or older, health care workers and long-term care staff and residents.
The Health Department said there are about 1,200 people in line waiting to receive the vaccine who fall into these two groups. Fred Thompson, Health Department director, said the county is pretty much done vaccinating Group 1, which includes front-line health care workers. The focus is now on those who are 65 years or older.
“We are getting hundreds of calls a day from people wanting to get their vaccine, which is good,” Thompson said. “We have been fortunate enough to get some volunteers from other county departments to assist us in answering the phones.”
Those who call and leave a voicemail should expect a call back from the Health Department in regards to scheduling an appointment. Residents should expect about a two to three week timeline between calling and leaving a voicemail to when you receive your first dose, according to Thompson. When you leave a message with your information, the Health Department has to register it into a COVID Vaccine Management System. This online portal tracks the number of doses administered and who received the vaccine, which is then reported to the federal government.
“Generally, we are able to get people scheduled within 2-3 weeks after they call and we get their information and add them to the Q,” Thompson said. “If, and only if, we actually have the vaccine. As you see on the news, the supply of vaccine is very limited at this time.”
Thompson said the supply of the vaccine coming to the Health Department is unpredictable. The department does not know how many doses they will receive for the week until late on Friday.
“We don’t want to schedule unless we know we will have a vaccine for those who are scheduled,” Thompson said. “Too many places have scheduled weeks in advance and then had to turn around and cancel the appointment due to the lack of vaccine.”
Once your name nears the top of the wait list, the Health Department will call and schedule an appointment. These appointments are only being scheduled a few days in advanced because of the uncertainty of when the vaccines will come and and how many will be delivered.
“If we only get 100 first doses next week, and we cannot get any more transferred from Atrium, we will be out of first dose vaccine by mid week,” Thompson said.
Atrium Health Anson transferred 1,000 of their first doses to the Health Department since the hospital has not yet started vaccinating members of the community. So far, the hospital only administered the vaccine to staff members. The hope is that Atrium Health Anson will soon follow Mecklenburg and Union counties in progressing to vaccinating the general population.
“At this point, the Health Department and the hospital are the only ‘enrolled providers’ in Anson County authorized to give the vaccine,” Thompson said. “We hope that other entities, like ARMS, CVS, etc. will enroll and assist getting the vaccine out to the community over the next few months.”
The Health Department did start giving out the second dose of the vaccine this week to employees and health care workers. Both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccine require two shots to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Those shots should be given about three to four weeks apart.
The Moderna vaccine is 94.1% effective at preventing COVID-19, according to evidence from clinical trials.
The Health Department is giving out the vaccines at the EMS facility off of County Club Road. Once the second dose is given to residents, there will be a second drive-thru line to those coming for the second shot.
“It is the same vaccine, same amount, etc. but the doses are tracked separately,” Thompson said. “It will be easier to have one lane for the first dose and another lane for the second dose.”
North Carolina has over 723,000 cases of COVID-19 with the death total now at 8,720. The whole state is seeing a slight decrease in daily cases. Jan. 25 is the second lowest number of cases per day in the month, but cases still exceeded 4,600, according to the NCDHHS website.
Despite the small break in numbers, the state still strongly urges residents to follow safe guidelines to stop the spread: wash your hands, wait six feet apart and wear a mask. This is especially important as NCDHHS recently reported the first North Carolina resident to be infected with a COVID-19 variant, B.1.1.7, which was first detected in the United Kingdom.
“Early data suggest that this variant may be more contagious than other variants,” NCDHHS said in a press release. “Current COVID-19 vaccines are expected to be effective against the new variant.”