North Carolina will start vaccinating school and childcare workers on Feb. 24 as the state enters Group 3 of its vaccine distribution plan.
The state plans to vaccinate the rest of Group 3, which includes frontline essential workers, on March 10.
Here's what you need to know about the shift into a new vaccination group:
Who is eligible on Feb. 24?
The Feb. 24 vaccine rollout encompasses public, private/non-public and charter school workers, as well as workers in any childcare facility. This includes non-faculty roles such as school transportation drivers, food service workers, custodial staff and school support staff.
Stacie Boyer, assistant principal at Ephesus Elementary School, said she sees school workers getting the vaccine as a big step forward.
“I think the vaccine is a way for teachers to come prepared mentally and emotionally to give everything they can to these sweet little people who have been out of our building for almost a year,” Boyer said.
Ephesus Elementary, along with the rest of Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, will see some students return to in-person learning on April 19. Boyer said most staff at the school have been able to get a vaccination appointment by that date, but the majority of those will only have enough time to get the first round of the vaccine.
“I would hope for more push to be able to get more vaccinated more quickly if at all possible,” Boyer said.
Who is eligible on March 10?
Though Group 3 includes all frontline essential workers, only school and childcare workers can begin receiving vaccines on Feb. 24. The plan is to make the rest of the frontline essential workers eligible starting March 10.
Frontline essential workers are people who must be present in-person at their place of work and work in one of eight essential sectors laid out by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services:
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- Critical Manufacturing
- Education
- Essential Goods
- Food and Agriculture
- Government and Community Services
- Health Care and Public Health
- Public Safety
- Transportation
NCDHHS Secretary Dr. Mandy Cohen said the reason for the gradual rollout of Group 3 was due to a limited supply of vaccines.
“We’re hopeful that we’ll be able on March 10 to make more of our frontline workers eligible, but we really have to look at the supply at that time and then make further decisions,” Cohen said at a Feb. 10 coronavirus briefing.
How is vaccination going within Orange County?
As of Tuesday, over 26,000 first doses of the vaccine had been administered in Orange County. Of those, over 4,000 were administered by the Orange County Health Department.
Todd McGee, Orange County community relations director, said he is confident in how vaccine distribution is being handled within the department.
“Any vaccine we get in we generally get out in about a week,” McGee said. “Our problem is there’s just not a lot of vaccines.”
The department has a waitlist of 10,392 people from Groups 1 and 2 as of Feb. 22. Any school or childcare worker who signs up to receive the vaccine will be placed at the back of this list.
“People are signing up on multiple waiting lists, so we imagine we have thousands of people on the waiting list who are no longer needing a shot because they got it somewhere else,” McGee said. “Because of that, we can’t give any estimates on when we’ll get through Groups 1 and 2.”
Orange County has several locations to receive the vaccine, including UNC Health. Other locations can be found using the NCDHHS vaccine provider location tool.
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