On Thursday, North Carolina health officials revealed that they are changing their vaccine distribution plans to mirror guidance from the federal government.

This new distribution criteria puts people age 65 and older ahead of other front-line essential workers and in the same group as those 75 and older.

In non-pandemic times, the two senior centers in Orange County serve about 700 people every single day, whether it be providing group meals, learning opportunities, leisure activities or simply a sense of community. Now, the centers are helping lead the charge in vaccine distribution.

Janice Tyler serves as the director of the Orange County Department on Aging and helps to oversee the county’s two centers – which include the Passmore Center in Hillsborough and the Seymour Center in Chapel Hill.

While it’s been a difficult year adjusting services and fighting off social-isolation amid a pandemic, Tyler said she has seen a big difference in her senior’s morale with the rollout of the vaccine.

“The people that we saw on Monday and Tuesday – and that was the 75-plus group, the governor hadn’t yet changed to the 65 – so we saw some people that were pretty up in age and they were happy,” Tyler said. “They were so glad to be able to come out and get a vaccine and it was some of the folks that do participate in the centers and I think it just gives them, as well as us, that glimmer of hope that we’re going to get back to some kind of normal.”

The Department on Aging and senior centers have been working closely with the Orange County Health Department to keep seniors updated as state and county vaccine guidelines continue to change.

Despite initial rollout, Tyler said she is worried that some of the 75 and older population won’t get their vaccines now that the state has also opened up registration to those 65 and older under Group 2.

“I’m glad that it was changed to age 65 and up, but it does concern me for our folks that are 75 and up and the older folks that don’t have the access to technology,” Tyler said. “I feel like our younger seniors will get through the system quicker so we have to figure out how we are going to get our oldest adults vaccinated.”

When vaccine registration initially opened on January 7, during what was formerly Phase 1B, more than 4,200 Orange County residents signed up in 24 hours. Since then, as registration opened to include those 65-plus, Tyler said her department’s phones have been ringing off the hook. Outside of the confusion stemming from changing vaccine distribution plans, Tyler said this is due to a significant portion of the county falling into the senior category.

“When you look at the population of age 60-plus, we’ve got more than 20 percent of folks in our community that are 60-plus,” Tyler said. “Then if you break it down to 65 [and older], we’ve got more than 15 percent. They don’t have the data broken down for the 75-plus, but we do know that our 85-plus population is the fastest growing.”

Tyler said the 85-plus population is the fastest growing in the county. She said, now, the community has more older adults than it does kids ages zero to 17.

As UNC Health started vaccinating the public at the Friday Center last Monday the 11, so did the two senior centers. Tyler said they did not publicly announce that the senior centers would also be vaccine distribution sites as they didn’t want the clinics to be overwhelmed.

“We did not want to be like other counties where you had older adults lined up for hours outside of a location, in the cold, hoping that they were going to get a vaccine,” Tyler said. “That was the reason that you didn’t see anything out in the media that the clinics were being held at our locations. It wasn’t until you called and got scheduled for an appointment that you knew you were coming to one of the centers to get your vaccine.”

After two days of successful clinics last week, Tyler said now they’re just waiting to get the next clinics scheduled as more vaccine supply becomes available.

For more information on how to register under Group 2, click here.

 

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