Emergency Preparedness and Response:
April 21, 2021 |
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Public Health Chat with Orange County Health Director Quintana StewartVIDEO: On April 7, 2021 everyone ages 16 and up became eligible for the COVID-19 vaccination. In this video the Health Director gives an update on the COVID-19 pandemic in Orange County, NC and discusses the most important tool to end the pandemic-- vaccines.
Share Your Reason to Encourage Others
We would love to hear from you, our community members! Do you have a reason why you got the vaccine or something you cannot wait to be able to do once we achieve herd protection?
You may submit a written reason, a video, or a photo at this link or you can email me, Kristin Prelipp, to participate.
Link to submit your entry: https://bit.ly/3e9xGra
In order to end the pandemic and stop this virus, we will have to all do our part.
Learn more at: www.orangecountync.gov/getyourshot
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Orange County Health Department Offers Self-Scheduling of COVID Vaccine Appointments
If you would like a COVID vaccine you can now easily schedule your own appointment at a time and date that work for you!
- Visit https://myspot.nc.gov.
- Search for zip code 27278
- Choose a time and date that work for your schedule!
- You can also call (919) 913-8088 for assistance in obtaining an appointment. The phone line is operated daily from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Spanish and other languages available.
Related Links |
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Walk-In COVID-19 Vaccine Clinics are OpenThe Orange County Health Department is welcoming walk-ins for a Moderna COVID-19 Vaccination.
Tell your family and friends!
WHERE: Whitted BOCC Meeting Room, 300 West Tryon Street, Hillsborough, NC 27278
WHEN: Walk-ins available as follows:
TODAY! Wednesday, April 21 – 8:00 am to 12:30 pm
Friday, April 23 – 8:00 am to 12:30 pm |
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Orange County Health Department Administers 10,000th First Dose of COVID Vaccine
The Orange County Health Department marked a milestone in its fight with COVID-19 on Thursday when it administered its 10,000th first dose of a COVID vaccine.
“This is a big day for the Orange County Health Department,” said Health Director Quintana Stewart. “We are so proud and so grateful to all the staff and volunteers who have helped make this achievement possible.”
A line of people stretched down the front steps of the Whitted Building in Hillsborough before the clinic opened at 10 a.m. Business remained steady throughout the day.
Many of the people getting vaccinated were from Group 5, the last group of people made eligible to receive the shot. Lisa McCubbin of Chapel Hill said she signed up as soon as Group 5 became eligible on April 7. She had already received an appointment through another provider for the same day but cancelled it when she was notified of an appointment by the Health Department.
“I am so excited to get it,” she said. “I’ve been waiting a long time. I can’t wait to travel. I want to go to Italy. I want to do some trips I’ve been holding off for over a year. And just to get back to normal, going to a gym indoors without a mask, things like that.”
McCubbin said she had no hesitancy about getting the vaccine. “I was looking forward to it,” she said.
Bryan Braxton, an Orange County native, said he was notified the day before that he could get a shot. He said he couldn’t wait to gather again with friends and family.
“Just getting back to normal where you can be around everybody and not in certain numbers,” he said.
Carmelo Roberts had nine good reasons to get the vaccine. “Most of my reason is to protect my grandchildren. I don’t want to not be able to see them or to transmit it to them.”
Roberts also said he was eager to go on another cruise. He had taken his first cruise to the Bahamas before the pandemic hit and can’t wait to hit the high seas again.
“I miss it,” he said.” There is a possibility that without the vaccine, you won’t be able to cruise. And I get it. It’s about protecting people.”
Like McCubbin, Roberts said he had no hesitation when the appointment was offered to him. “Not at all,” he said. “It’s the best thing. You’re not only protecting yourself, but it’s about protecting others. We are all here to try to help each other.”
The county received an additional allotment of 500 first doses for the week and was scheduled to give 400 first doses Thursday and again Friday.
According to data from the NC Department of Health and Human Services, more than 66,000 people in Orange County (44.6% of the population) had received at least one dose of a COVID vaccine as of April 15. More than 50,000 residents had been fully vaccinated, representing 33.9%. The numbers are among the highest in the state for any county.
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Booster Shots and Re-vaccinations Could be Needed. Drug Companies Are Planning For It.
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Scientists have long said that giving people a single course of a Covid-19 vaccine might not be sufficient in the long term, and that booster shots and even annual vaccinations might prove necessary.
In recent days, that proposition has begun to sound less hypothetical.
Vaccine makers are getting a jump-start on possible new rounds of shots, although they sound more certain of the need for boosters than independent scientists have.
Pfizer’s chief executive Albert Bourla said on Thursday that a third dose of the company’s Covid-19 vaccine was “likely” to be needed within a year of the initial two-dose inoculation — followed by annual vaccinations.
Read more at The New York Times
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'Inside the COVID ICU': A New Doctor Bears Witness to the Isolation, Inequities of Pandemic
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By Jenny Gold
March 1, 2021
Kaiser Health News
This week marks a grim milestone: Half a million Americans have died of covid-19. KHN reporter Jenny Gold, in collaboration with Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, spent eight months following one first-year medical resident working on the front lines of the pandemic.
Dr. Paloma Marin-Nevarez graduated from the Stanford University medical school in June, right before the virus began its second major surge. She’s one of more than 30,000 new doctors who started residencies in 2020. Just weeks after graduating, Marin-Nevarez began training as an ER doctor at Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno, one of the areas in California hardest hit by the pandemic.
Listeners follow Marin-Nevarez as she faces the loneliness and isolation of being a new doctor, working 80 hours a week in the era of masks and physical distancing. She also witnesses the inequality of the pandemic, with Latino, Black and Native American people dying of covid-19 at much higher rates than white people. Marin-Nevarez finds herself surrounded by death and having to counsel families about the loss of loved ones. We view the pandemic through the eyes of a rookie doctor, finding her footing on the front lines of the virus.
Listen or view the transcript here. |
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North Carolina COVID-19 Cases
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) reports 950,566 COVID-19 cases, 12,437 deaths, and 1,170 hospitalizations.
37% of North Carolina's population are at least partially vaccinated, and 27.6% are fully vaccinated.
There are currently 8,361 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 101 deaths in Orange County. 45.8% of Orange County residents are at least partially vaccinated, and 36.3% are fully vaccinated.
For more information regarding live updates (NCDHHS updates the site every day around noon), please visit the NCDHHS website.
Orange County Health Department also has a COVID-19 dashboard webpage, with information on COVID-19 data in the county.
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