As North Carolina continues aiming to improve COVID-19 vaccination rates, two of the largest healthcare systems in the Triangle region are offering new ways to get vaccine shots.

UNC Health and Duke Health announced this week some of their clinic sites will now regularly accept walk-up appointments, a shift as the state progresses past the phased approach that prioritized residents with health risks.

All UNC Health clinics will now accept walk-in patients, meaning those who did not previously have appointments, including at the Friday Center in Chapel Hill. While the health care system says it still encourages patients to make appointments online or on the phone, clinics will accept walk-in patients from 8:30 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays.

Duke Health is currently welcoming walk-in appointments at two of its clinics. Beginning on Monday, May 3, the health care system’s Wheels Fun Park location will welcome both walk-in and scheduled appointments. Walk-in patients must show up between 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. on Mondays through Fridays, with the site offering the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.

According to Duke, the Karsh Alumni and Visitors Center on the university’s campus will also accept walk-up patients, starting on Friday and ending on Monday, May 10. The site, which will offer Pfizer doses some days and Moderna doses others, has varying hours it will take walk-up appointments.

Neither location will require health insurance and all COVID-19 vaccine shots are free.

The shift to walk-in appointments follows the Orange County Health Department also making this option available in the community. The local government began holding pop-up vaccination events for walk-up patients last week, with more events slated to be announced soon.

As of Friday, North Carolina providers and vaccination clinics have administered more than 3.8 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. Nearly half of all North Carolinians older than 18 are at least partially vaccinated. Earlier in April, Governor Roy Cooper said he plans to lift the mask mandate, which is in place to prevent the coronavirus’ spread, once more than two-thirds of the state’s population is vaccinated.

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