Eligible Charlotte, Mecklenburg residents can get the COVID vaccine at home. Here’s how.
Mecklenburg County will start administering the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine to residents in their homes who have physical and mental disabilities, health officials announced Thursday.
The goal is to accelerate the county’s vaccine roll-out while ensuring the process is as equitable as possible, said Mecklenburg Public Health Director Gibbie Harris.
The one-dose J&J regimen is far easier for health care providers to store and transport than the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which need to be kept at colder temperatures. And it offers a vital solution for residents unable to leave their homes and navigate mass vaccination clinics, including those underway in Charlotte at Bojangles Coliseum and Bank of America Stadium.
“Protecting our vulnerable, high-risk residents and reducing transmission through increased population immunity by vaccination are critical steps to our goal of reducing the impact of COVID-19 in our community,” Harris said in a news release.
It’s unclear when these types of vaccinations will begin, though Mecklenburg is now accepting request forms online at www.MeckNC.gov/COVID-19. People can also call the county’s COVID-19 hotline at 980-314-9400; select option 3 for English and option 8 for Spanish.
Scheduling depends on eligibility criteria, vaccine supply and available appointments.
Vaccine administrators will wear appropriate personal protective equipment and follow infection control measures as they enter residents’ homes, said Dr. Meg Sullivan, the county’s medial director.
“In the beginning as we evaluate demand and how this program will be worked out, the focus should be on (vaccinating) those specific individuals and not necessarily family members,” Sullivan said. “I think that is something we will continue to evaluate.”
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Vaccine priority groups
The health department received its first shipment of the J&J vaccine — containing 10,000 doses — last week. Sullivan said 3,500 of those doses were transferred to Novant Health and 6,200 went to Atrium Health for mass vaccination clinics. Part of the supply was also used at a MEDIC vaccine clinic.
Mecklenburg doesn’t know when its next shipment will arrive or how many more doses to expect, Sullivan said during a press briefing Thursday afternoon.
North Carolina has dramatically accelerated its vaccine rollout in recent weeks. People in Groups 1, 2 and 3 are now eligible — and people with certain underlying health conditions in Group 4 qualify next week, Gov. Roy Cooper announced Thursday afternoon.
Frontline essential workers in Group 3 became eligible a week earlier than planned. The group includes teachers, child care workers and school staff — plus law enforcement, first respondents, security officers restaurant and grocery store workers, elected officials, clergy, veterinarians and social workers, among other people who must report to work in person.
Vaccine appointments in the Charlotte area are available through Mecklenburg County Public Health, Atrium Health, Novant Health, Walgreens, Harris Teeter. N.C. DHHS also maintains a list of providers who administer the vaccine. To see the latest and find one near you, visit covid19.ncdhhs.gov/findyourspot.
As of Thursday, close to 142,000 Mecklenburg residents were at least partially vaccinated. More than 86,000 residents are fully vaccinated, which is less than 8% of the county’s population.
COVID-19 trends
Mecklenburg County’s coronavirus conditions have steadily improved since January, when holiday gatherings caused a staggering wave of infections, hospitalizations and deaths. Over the last several days, Mecklenburg’s average COVID-19 positivity rate dropped below 5%, Harris said. That’s the lowest volume logged since October, when Mecklenburg reached a brief period of stability.
Mecklenburg is now in the yellow tier of the state’s county alert map, signaling there is “significant” community spread of the virus — but the severity is not considered “substantial” like the orange tier or “critical” like the red tier. The tiers are based on an analysis of counties’ case rates and positivity rates, plus hospital impact.
Four other Charlotte area counties are also in the yellow tier, based on the updated map from March 4: Union, Cabarrus, Cleveland and Lincoln. Stanly, Gaston and Rowan counties are in the orange tier — and Iredell County is stuck in the red tier.
Mecklenburg has logged 98,652 coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services reported Thursday afternoon.
County officials say 895 residents have died of coronavirus-related complications as of Wednesday evening.
Mecklenburg is recording roughly 150 new coronavirus cases each day, based on a 7-day moving average of state health data. But far fewer county residents are seeking COVID-19 tests recently — a concerning pattern that health experts say could hamper Mecklenburg’s ability to monitor the trajectory of more contagious virus strains, like the United Kingdom variant.
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Vaccines by county
More than 3 million vaccine doses have been administered across the state, DHHS reported as of late Wednesday. About 18% of North Carolinians are at least partially vaccinated, and 11 % are fully vaccinated.
Here’s how counties in the Charlotte area compare by doses, as of late Wednesday. The data does not incorporate vaccines administered in long-term care facilities like nursing homes, and the state warns tallies could have a 72-hour lag.
Mecklenburg
People at least partially vaccinated: 142,351
People fully vaccinated: 86,562
Union
People at least partially vaccinated: 33,565
People fully vaccinated: 19,188
Gaston
People at least partially vaccinated: 32,366
People fully vaccinated: 19,909
Cabarrus
People at least partially vaccinated: 26,913
People fully vaccinated: 16,510
Iredell
People at least partially vaccinated: 26,415
People fully vaccinated: 16,196
Rowan
People at least partially vaccinated: 17,217
People fully vaccinated: 12,120
Cleveland
People at least partially vaccinated: 17,839
People fully vaccinated: 8,857
Lincoln
People at least partially vaccinated: 13,068
People fully vaccinated: 7,608
Stanly
People at least partially vaccinated: 9,308
People fully vaccinated: 5,131
