Chatham County is approaching having half of its eligible population at least partially vaccinated against COVID-19.

With the Chatham County Public Health Department reporting more than 46% of county residents aged 16 years and older have at least received of one of the COVID-19 vaccines, the local government is now pursuing ways to respond to the lag of demand for the vaccine in recent weeks.

County Commissioner Karen Howard recently spoke with 97.9’s The Hill’s Brighton McConnell and shared her thoughts on the progress of vaccinations.

“I’m feeling cautiously optimistic about the way that Chatham and Orange and North Carolina is approaching our vision for the end of this phase of the pandemic,” Howard said.

In an effort to increase access to the vaccine for certain communities, Chatham County has increased the number of its distribution sites and has transitioned to holding clinics that don’t require an appointment.

The Chatham County Public Health Department will begin administering the Moderna vaccine at its Siler City clinic on Fridays, starting this week. While walk-ins are welcome, appointments can still be made by calling 919-742-5641. While StarMed Healthcare is already providing Pfizer vaccines at the Chatham County Agriculture and Conference Center in Pittsboro, the healthcare company will now also be administering doses on Fridays and Saturdays from 2 to 6 p.m. Walk-ins will are also accepted here, but pre-registration can be completed on StarMed’s website or by calling 980-445-9818.

The health department also announced plans to bring a regular vaccination clinic to the Goldston Town Hall on Wednesdays throughout May, with additional vaccine sites throughout or near Chatham County through other distributors.

“Hopefully, we will keep on the trend that we’re on,” Howard said. “We will continue to encourage people to get a vaccination as soon as they’re able to, and we will get back to a new and better normal.”

On April 27, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shifted its guidelines to allow fully vaccinated people to gather outdoors without a mask as long as it’s not a crowded setting. A day later, Gov. Roy Cooper issued Executive Order No. 209 and announced North Carolina’s mask mandate will be lifted once two-thirds of adults in the state are fully vaccinated.

In addition to eliminating the outdoor mask mandate, Cooper’s executive order expanded the mass gathering limits of a range of different settings. Museums, personal care and retail businesses, and outdoor spaces of restaurants, fitness centers, and pools no longer have any capacity limits. Indoor spaces of restaurants,  fitness centers, and pools are now only limited to 75% capacity, while movie theaters, bars, venues, and arenas are limited to 50% capacity.

More information about the progress of the vaccine distribution in each of North Carolina’s counties can be found on the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services’ Vaccination Dashboard.

 

Photo courtesy of AP Photo/Mary Altaffer.

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