Orange County Health News
October 27, 2021 |
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Boosters for All COVID-19 Vaccines
Now Available
The Orange County Health Department is offering Pfizer, Moderna and J & J booster shots at its Chapel Hill walk-in clinic. The Hillsborough clinic will begin boosters for Moderna and
J & J on Nov. 2. For more information, call (919) 913-8088.
To strengthen and extend protections against severe illness, North Carolinians who have been fully vaccinated with the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines may now be eligible to receive a booster dose.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have authorized and recommended "booster" vaccine shots to provide continued protection.
Moderna
If you were vaccinated more than 6 months ago with the Moderna COVID-19 shot, boosters are now available for people:
- 65 years or older
- 18 years or older who:
-live or work in a nursing home or long-term care facility,
-have underlying medical conditions, or
-work in high-risk settings like healthcare workers, teachers and childcare providers, or food workers. - Live or work in a place where many people live together (for example, homeless shelters, correctional facilities, migrant farm housing, or dormitories or other group living settings in colleges or universities).
The Moderna booster is a smaller dose than what is given in the first two shots. Be sure to let your provider know you want the booster.
Johnson & JohnsonIt is recommended that anyone 18 or older who was vaccinated more than 2 months ago with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine should get a booster dose.
PfizerPfizer-BioNTech (COMIRNATY) booster shots continue to be available to anyone at high risk for serious illness or exposure, and who received their second dose more than 6 months ago.
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services has now authorized the distribution of Moderna and Johnson & Johnson boosters in addition to Pfizer COVID-19 boosters. Not all vaccines may be available at every vaccine location.
To find a COVID-19 booster visit MySpot.nc.gov to search vaccine locations near you. Additionally, individuals are now able to receive any brand of COVID-19 vaccine for their booster shot. Some people may have a preference for the vaccine type that they originally received and others may prefer to get a different booster. Limited preliminary evidence suggests that booster doses of one of the two mRNA vaccines—Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech—more effectively raise antibody levels than a booster dose of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. NCDHHS encourages you to speak with a doctor, nurse or pharmacist if you have questions about what booster is right for you.
Have questions about whether your personal medical conditions or job might make you eligible?
Talk to a doctor, pharmacist, or nurse about whether you should get a booster.
People do not need a doctor's note to get a booster shot and may self-attest to eligibility. Individuals who want to receive a booster shot will need to know the dates of any past COVID-19 vaccinations, as well as the vaccine brand they originally received. Paper vaccination cards are helpful but may not be necessary. At-home vaccination and free transportation may be available.
Related Links - Spanish Language Press Release
- For more information about COVID-19 vaccines in North Carolina or to find a vaccine location visit MySpot.nc.gov.
- North Carolina’s actions are based on recommendations from the CDC. Read the CDC’s full statement here.
- More information about COVID-19 vaccine boosters and additional doses is available on NCDHHS’s website.
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Safer, Alternative Ways to Participate in HalloweenMany traditional Halloween activities can be high-risk for spreading viruses. There are several safer, alternative ways to participate in Halloween. If you may have COVID-19 or you may have been exposed to someone with COVID-19, you should not participate in in-person Halloween festivities and should not give out candy to trick-or-treaters.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says traditional outdoor trick or treating or trunk and treating where treats are handed to children are lower risk this year, but limiting crowds is a good idea.
If you choose to go out at night, remember: - Be seen! Carry glow sticks or flashlights and wear light colored clothing.
- Always walk on sidewalks or paths. Be sure to cross the street using traffic signals and crosswalks.
- Watch for cars turning or backing up.
A costume mask (such as for Halloween) is not a substitute for a cloth mask. A costume mask should not be used unless it is made of two or more layers of breathable fabric that covers the mouth and nose and doesn’t leave gaps around the face.
Do not wear a costume mask over a protective cloth mask. It can be dangerous if the costume mask can make it hard to breathe. Instead, consider using a Halloween-themed cloth mask.
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The free COVID-19 testing clinics hosted by OCHD are conducted by two different vendors, StarMed Healthcare in Hillsborough and Optum in Chapel Hill. Please register with the appropriate vendor depending on which location you would like to attend. |
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Free COVID-19 Vaccine ClinicsVaccines are free, and no ID is required! If you are coming for your second dose, please bring your vaccination card with the record of your first dose. Visit our COVID-19 Vaccine page for the most up-to-date information: www.orangecountync.gov/getyourshot, or call (919) 913-8088 with any questions.
Regular Vaccine Clinics
Bonnie B. Davis Environment & Agricultural Center
1020 US Hwy 70 W, Hillsborough, NC
Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 9:00am - 4:30pm
Please call (877) 505-6723 to schedule an appointment.
PLEASE NOTE: - Currently, Pfizer vaccines are available for those completing their primary series. They also offer a Pfizer booster for those who completed a Pfizer primary series more than six months ago. They do not offer Pfizer boosters for those who had a primary series with Moderna or J&J vaccines.
- Beginning next week, this location will offer Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, and Pfizer and Moderna boosters will be available for everyone who has completed a primary vaccine series with any brand. Example: if you received two Moderna or Pfizer shots at least six months ago, or you received a J&J shot at least two months ago, you can receive a Pfizer booster at this clinic.
Southern Human Services Center
2501 Homestead Rd, Chapel Hill, NC
Monday - Friday, 8:30am - 4:30pm
Please call (919) 913-8088 to schedule an appointment.
All three vaccine brands are available for primary series or booster shots. You may also "mix and match" your booster shot. This means that you can receive a booster shot from a different brand than you received for your primary series.
Pop-Up Walk-In Vaccine Clinics
In addition to our regularly scheduled walk-in clinics (see graphic above), the Orange County Health Department is pleased to offer pop-up vaccine clinics to all community members ages 12 and older. No registration required, these are walk-in clinics.
Last Fridays (at the old Courthouse in Hillsborough)
104 E. King St., Hillsborough, NC
Friday, October 29th from 6:00 - 9:00 pm
Flyers: English/Español
***Primary series and booster shots will be available for all three vaccine brands, but we will not yet be equipped to offer "mix and match" boosters. You will be able to get a booster for whatever brand of vaccine you received for your primary series.***
Smith Middle School Gym
9201 Seawell School Rd, Chapel Hill, NC
Monday, November 1st, 2021 from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm
Flyers: English/ Español
J & J, Pfizer and Moderna vaccines available
Farmer's Market Pavilion in Hillsborough (next to the Courthouse)
140 E. Margaret Lane, Hillsborough
Wednesday, November 3 from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm
Flyers: English, Español
J&J and Pfizer vaccines available
Farmer's Market Pavilion in Hillsborough (next to the Courthouse)
140 E. Margaret Lane, Hillsborough
Wednesday, November 10 from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm
Flyers: English, Español
J&J and Pfizer vaccines availableSmith Middle School Gym
9201 Seawell School Rd, Chapel Hill, NC
Chapel Hill, NC 27516
Monday, November 22nd, 2021 from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm
Flyers: English/ Español
J & J, Pfizer and Moderna vaccines available |
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National Lead Poisoning Prevention WeekEach year, National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week (NLPPW) is a call to bring together individuals, organizations, industry, and state, tribal, and local governments to increase lead poisoning prevention awareness in an effort to reduce childhood exposure to lead. NLPPW highlights the many ways parents can reduce children’s exposure to lead in their environment and prevent its serious health effects. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and other partners work to heighten awareness of lead poisoning, provide resources, and encourage preventive actions during NLPPW and beyond.
Orange County has multiple resources, including infographics and videos (in multiple languages) on lead poisoning prevention education. Check out those resources here.
Additional Resources |
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Regional Team Based at Orange County Health Department Supports Hundreds of
Long-Term Care Facilities During Pandemic
Since January 2021, a team of infection prevention educators has traveled throughout Orange County and eight surrounding counties in North Carolina’s Central Region to visit hundreds of long-term care facilities. They are one of ten Regional Infection Prevention Support (RIPS) Teams funded by a new state grant designed to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and other infections. At each visit, the educators observe the facility’s infection prevention practices, offer recommendations, and educate staff on ways to keep themselves and their residents safe, including vaccination.
More than 140,000 residents and staff of long-term care facilities have died from COVID-19, according to federal government data. Older people and those with chronic health conditions are more likely to develop severe complications from COVID-19 infection, including hospitalization and death. Staff are also at risk; physical distancing is not possible when helping residents with daily activities like bathing and medical procedures. While most Americans have stayed home as much as possible, staff and residents have been in close proximity with one another throughout the pandemic.
To help minimize risks, educators recommend strategies like cohorting COVID-positive patients in a single wing or area, ensuring hand sanitizer is widely available, and screening all staff and visitors for symptoms of COVID-19 before allowing them to enter the facility.
“Anytime a facility has an outbreak of COVID-19 or another infection, we offer to visit them in-person to provide support,” explains Jenny Jensen, Central Region RIPS Coordinator. “But most of our time is spent visiting facilities that don’t have any cases at all so that we can prevent an outbreak from happening in the first place.”
Across all ten regions, RIPS teams have provided on-site visits to more than 1,600 long-term care facilities.
The RIPS program is part of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services’ (NCDHHS) broader response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including prevention, staffing, testing, outbreak management, vaccination, and oversight. Additionally, the state provided personal protective equipment, helped fill staffing shortages, provided infection prevention and control training, targeted funding, mandated testing, facilitated vaccine administration, and completed infection control inspections in North Carolina’s nursing homes.
The latest NCDHHS data show that these efforts are working. As COVID-19 cases surged this summer fueled by the Delta variant, hospitalizations and deaths among residents in North Carolina’s long-term care facilities were significantly lower than during the winter surge. The decrease in cases and severe illness can be attributed to vaccination for residents and staff of long-term care facilities, and to the work done by long-term care providers to implement measures to protect staff and residents from COVID-19.
"This data from our long-term care facilities is more evidence that vaccines save lives," said NCDHHS Secretary Mandy K. Cohen, M.D. "Don’t wait until it’s too late. Get vaccinated to protect against COVID-19 and help your friends and loved ones to do the same."
To find a location offering free COVID-19 vaccination visit www.orangecountync.gov/getyourshot or http://myspot.nc.gov.
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New data shows COVID-19's disproportionate impact on American Indian, Alaska Native tribes
Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, Center for American Indian Health launch visualization of pandemic spread within Tribal Nations The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center today launched new data and maps tracking the pandemic's impact across American Indian and Alaska Native communities.
Developed in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health and Indian Country Today, the map provides one of the most comprehensive views of how the pandemic has unfolded across more than 100 Tribal Nations.
American Indian and Alaska Native communities have been experiencing some of the highest rates of COVID-19 in the United States. There are, however, substantial gaps in the availability of COVID-19 information about Tribal communities in publicly accessible databases.The gap in data was recognized by Indian Country Today editors, who began tracking publicly available data in an open-access spreadsheet. The new maps of Tribal Nations streamline data collection efforts and provide visualizations to display the pandemic's disparate impact in areas not typically monitored by mainstream media sources. COVID-19 has amplified health inequities in American Indian communities because of underfunded and under-resourced health systems, limited access to health services, poor infrastructure, and underlying health disparities. For example, American Indian or Alaska Native individuals were 3.5 times more likely to be hospitalized for the virus.
"The maps help make visible the impact of COVID-19 on Native peoples," said Allison Barlow, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health and a senior scientist in International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. "Many tribes have achieved exceptional vaccine coverage rates in spite of struggling with chronic health care access issues and other persistent socioeconomic challenges and underlying risks that make COVID-19 an ongoing threat."
To access the Tribal Nations data, on the U.S. map, use the tabbed navigation at the bottom of the map window.
Data for the maps is updated regularly from publicly available sources provided directly by Tribes. This may include social media posts, Tribally run websites or dashboards, radio broadcasts, webinars, and other methods. For more than a year, volunteers from universities and organizations across the country have collected data in an effort coordinated through the Center for American Indian Health.
The maps have been adapted from two of the primary sources for geographic information about Indigenous communities: the Indian Health Service's continental United States map and Esri's map of Alaska Native Village lands.
The depictions of the Tribal Nations on the Johns Hopkins maps are not fully inclusive representations of all land boundaries for American Indians or Alaska Natives and are limited to federally recognized Tribal Nations in the continental United States and Alaska Village lands.
The map identifies U.S. counties that intersect with federally recognized Native land reservations and displays the most up-to-date COVID-19 data available for those counties. This depiction of data will not be a perfect representation of the pandemic's burden in specific Tribal communities where borders do not align directly with county lines. But the mission is to clearly show the disparate impact COVID-19 has had on American Indian and Alaska Native communities while also respecting Tribal sovereignty and individual privacy.
For the most accurate COVID-19 rates for these communities, contact representatives for the appropriate Tribal, regional, or Urban Indian health programs.
The map also does not currently include Urban Indian populations and it does not intend to represent official or legal boundaries of any Indigenous communities. |
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North Carolina COVID-19 Cases
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) reports 1,472,655 COVID-19 cases, 17,935 deaths, and 1,406 hospitalizations. 55% of North Carolina's population is fully vaccinated.
There are currently 11,807 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 110 deaths in Orange County. 70% of Orange County residents 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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