Tryon Medical offers COVID vaccine for age 18 and up. Here’s where to get in line.

Tryon Medical Partners is officially offering COVID-19 vaccine appointments to anyone age 18 and up at its Ballantyne location.

The independent practice is offering the Moderna vaccine at 16817 Marvin Road after 5 p.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Appointments are required and can be scheduled online. The Moderna COVID-19 vaccine is only authorized for use in people age 18 and older. Pfizer is the only COVID-19 vaccine currently authorized for use in 16- and 17-year-olds.

The practice, Charlotte’s largest independent doctor’s office, received its first shipment of less than 200 COVID-19 vaccines in late February.

At the time, Tryon Medical CEO Dr. Dale Owen said not enough COVID-19 vaccines were being distributed to independent primary care physicians.

Tryon Medical serves more than 150,000 patients in the Charlotte area.

The news comes as many vaccine providers around Charlotte begin accepting walk-in appointments for COVID-19 vaccines. That’s because local health experts want to make vaccines as easy to access as possible, and because in many places, vaccine supply is outstripping demand.

As of Monday, 36.1% of Mecklenburg County residents are at least partially vaccinated against the coronavirus, according to state Department of Health and Human Services. And 23.5% of county residents are fully vaccinated.

But the county vaccination rate still lags behind North Carolina’s rate overall.

Statewide, 38.1% of NC residents are at least partially vaccinated and 29.9% of state residents are fully vaccinated as of Monday.