— submitted by Lisa Harrison, Granville Vance District Health director
Since Jan. 26th, there have been 260 new cases of COVID-19 in Granville and 284 in Vance.
Unfortunately, there have been 4 additional deaths reported this week. A 69 year old male from Vance County passed away on Jan. 24th, a 57 year old male from Vance County passed away Jan. 26th, a 45 year old female associated with the outbreak at Central Regional passed away on Jan. 23rd, and a 71 year old male from Granville County passed away on Feb. 1.
The GVPH data dashboard is currently under construction. As we shift our priority to COVID-19 vaccines, we are reevaluating what data we are able to share and how we share it. We appreciate your patience during this time. In the meantime, we encourage you to visit the NCDHHS COVID-19 Dashboard. Relevant graphs from these dashboards are available on our website at https://gvph.org/covid-19_dashboard/.
We want to reiterate a few points as we do our best work in a tough environment and answer some questions we’ve been receiving.
We only receive a few hundred doses of vaccine each week – that’s true for the hospitals and our health department locations alike. The state asks those of us providing vaccine to be sure to use all of our vaccine allotment each week – they want us to run out before we get more in the next shipment sent to the state from the federal level. If we don’t use it all we risk losing more shipments. For now, we can easily vaccinate more than 200 people per day in our clinics, and at that rate, we are easily all out of vaccine each week and have to wait for the next shipment. For that reason, we cannot keep doing mass vaccination clinics because there isn’t enough vaccine supply for those unless we get a transfer from another area of the state (like last week – that’s why we could have a last-minute effort in Henderson on Sunday).
It is important for people to know when we run out this week, we’re not out for good – we’re just out for this week and more will come in its place next week. I don’t want people to panic when they hear we’re out of vaccine because more is on the way. But, it does make it hard to plan any additional mass vaccine clinics or schedule appointments too far into the future.
Here are some answers to a few additional questions we have heard lately:
Q: How do we get registered in the COVID-19 Vaccine Management System (CVMS) and how did people sign up for the clinic on Sunday at the High School?
- If you are currently eligible to receive a vaccine, please call the GVPH COVID Vaccine Hotline at 252-295-1503. This hotline is the source for ALL GVPH clinics for vaccine whether they are in Vance County, in Granville County, or even for the clinic we held with Maria Parham and Vance County Schools in Henderson – all appointments are made via the hotline. We receive tens of thousands of calls a day so I know it’s hard sometimes to get through, but we are always increasing the number of people working the hotline and we have to have a fair and equitable approach to the vaccine appointments.
Q: Why didn’t we know about the vaccine clinic on Sunday at Vance County High School? (people entered the traffic line at Clarke Elementary School in Henderson and proceeded through informational stations to Vance High School across the street for the flow of things – but it was all the same vaccine clinic in the same general area).
- We do not advertise vaccine clinics when we host these because we host what we call ‘closed pod’ clinics which means people must already have an appointment and must already be registered in our Covid Vaccine Management System (CVMS) to streamline the process. The places across the state that have opened up their mass clinics to people who did not have appointments have been over-run with miles-long waits of cars coming from everywhere so we only do closed pods, people must pre-register, and traffic is restricted. As I mentioned, we book all appointments through our hotline so community members should call for an appointment and will be informed of the location at that time. For this clinic, Maria Parham was able to receive a transfer of 975 doses of another hospital’s allotment so it all came together quickly – we all found out about the doses being available on Thursday, January 21 at 9am and the clinic was held on Sunday, January 24 – it came together that quickly strictly based on vaccine availability.
Q: Do I still need to wear my mask after I get my first vaccine shot?
- Yes! The virus is still spreading in our communities and it takes a few weeks after each dose of the vaccine for your body to build up immunity and be ready to fight it off well. It is still important to practice the 3 Ws – especially with new strains of the virus being discovered, we must stay protected with wearing our mask, washing our hands, and waiting six feet or more apart from others.
Q: How will the public be notified of the timing for their second dose?
- Notification comes by way of the COVID Vaccine Management System (CVMS) in which everyone who gets the vaccine must register in NC. In addition, we will be handing out a reminder card for the second dose as well as scheduling people for their second dose when they come for their first dose. It’s important for people to return to their same location for their second dose that they went to for their first dose.
Q: When will frontline essential workers be vaccinated?
- Soon! Teachers, court system employees, grocery clerks, county and city employees, and so many others are important frontline essential workers. Many have reached out to ensure we don’t forget about them – I promise we won’t forget anyone in this important vaccine initiative. We want EVERYONE who wants a vaccine to get one, and there are some key infrastructure and front line workers who have been very patient. We believe we will get to these groups around the end of February or beginning of March. Front line essential works is a different phase (Group 3 below) than what some have called ‘frontline HEALTH CARE workers.’ So far, we have been focused on those MOST at-risk for severe illness and death from COVID-19 and that includes our health care workers, long term care staff and residents, congregate living facilities (like group homes and homes for the intellectually and developmentally disabled), and other places where we see tremendous outbreak activity and know that we need to focus vaccine administration first. Also, those most at risk of dying from COVID-19 are over age 65. Between these two counties of Granville and Vance, more than 25,000 people in these first two groups alone. Since we are only receiving a few hundred doses of vaccine each week, it’s taking a longer time than we would like to reach the most high-risk groups. As soon as we and the state feel like we have done a good job with the high risk groups 1 and 2, we will be able to move on to group 3. Everyone is important and everyone needs a vaccine, but with vaccine doses coming out slowly as they are produced and going around the country and around the world at the same time, it calls for patience before we can get to some really important groups that we know are all at some level of risk. Thank you for understanding and for being patient. Again, we will get to EVERYONE who wants a vaccine, just not all at one time. More information and frequently asked questions can be found online here: https://gvph.org/covidvaccines/.
Be Well,
Lisa Macon Harrison,
Health Director