By WECT Staff | January 26, 2021 at 10:15 AM EST – Updated January 26 at 2:27 PM
RALEIGH, N.C. (WECT) – The number of first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine coming to North Carolina from the federal government will drop from 260,000 a week ago to 120,000 this week, NCDHHS Secretary Mandy Cohen said Tuesday.
Cohen also said a large portion of this week’s allotment has been committed to large-scale events “so week is going to feel particularly tight with many providers getting small or no allocations.”
She also outlined plans for vaccine distribution in the coming weeks.
“North Carolina will reserve 84,000 doses of our weekly 120,000 allocation of first doses from the federal government for our local vaccine providers,” Cohen said. “Providers will given a baseline amount of doses they can expect for the next three weeks. Vaccines will be allocated to each county based on population and then divided among the county’s providers based on their vaccine capacity.”
Cohen said the remaining 36,000 first doses will “go toward balancing vaccine distribution across our counties.”
As far as the required second doses, Cohen said those will be readily available.
“We will always have supply of second doses on hand that are going to mirror those first dose allocation to ensure everyone gets both shots at the right time,” she said.
During Tuesday’s news conference, Cohen said that as of midnight Tuesday that 95 percent of the state’s first doses of the vaccine had been administered.
Vaccine providers in the state have administered approximately 810,000 doses, while about 260,000 people got their first doses during the last week.
State health leaders are scheduled to hold a media briefing regarding COVID-19 today at 1 p.m.
Posted by WECT News on Tuesday, January 26, 2021
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