Winter Weather Slows COVID-19 Vaccine Shipments to NC, Orange County

North Carolina state leaders said Thursday the winter weather experienced in many parts of the country have caused shipping delays to doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

During a briefing, Governor Roy Cooper and Kody Kinsley of the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed the state is lacking much of its expected shipments because of the winter storm that ground life in the middle region of North America to a halt. While North Carolina expected to receive 163,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine and close to 127,000 from Pfizer, the shipments as of Thursday were far lower.

“None of the Moderna vaccine has arrived in North Carolina,” said Kinsley, “but about half of the Pfizer vaccine has either arrived [on Wednesday] or today.”

Orange County’s health department has been allocated 600 new doses from the state’s total, with other providers also receiving hundreds of doses. Chair of the Orange County Commissioners Renee Price said many of them have seen a supply disruption this week because of that same problem. She told 97.9 The Hill she learned about the issue first-hand.

“I went to go get my dose [on Wednesday] but found out it hadn’t arrived,” Price described. “The volunteers or staff are calling people to let them know that we had to cancel and will be rescheduling as soon as we know that we have the doses here or they’re on the way.”

Price said when the vaccines arrive, staff will be out delivering doses to vaccination sites and encouraging people to sign up to receive their shot when they are eligible.

The county commissioner also shared updates on vaccination and COVID-19 trends she found encouraging, like 15 percent of the county receiving its first dose of the vaccine and the positive rate of COVID-19 tests dropping to 1.2 percent.

For more information on vaccine distribution through the Orange County Health Department, visit its website.

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