WADESBORO Vaccinations continue to arrive in Anson County as residents who are 65 years or older may now receive their COVID-19 shot.
Atrium Health Anson started vaccinating employees with the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine on Jan. 12 as one of three prioritized rural areas in North Carolina.
Atrium Health announced being one of the first in the Southeast region to receive the Moderna vaccine, pledging to focus on giving this shipment to rural hospitals outside of Charlotte including Stanly, Kings Mountain and Anson.
This shipment of vaccines will be first used for Atrium’s front-line healthcare workers before vaccinating patients or Anson residents.
Yet most other states managed to roll out the vaccine more quickly than North Carolina, which has so far administered only about one-third of its allotment. That speed matters, as federal officials have said future distributions may be based on how quickly states are putting shots into arms.
But exactly why North Carolina has fallen behind is complicated.
A survey of dozens of county health departments across the state by the N.C. Watchdog Reporting Network shows a range of problems that have hampered their ability to vaccinate people in the first phase of the rollout namely front-line health workers and the elderly. Problems include:
The N.C. Watchdog Reporting Network surveyed local health departments across the state to find out why North Carolina has ranked near the bottom of states in administering the COVID-19 vaccine. We found a lack of manpower, technical problems and logistical hurdles.
WADESBORO Governor Roy Cooper issued a temporary, modified stay-at-home order beginning on Dec. 11 in order to curb the spread of COVID-19, which has reached new heights over the last several months.
This executive order will place a night-time public closure on certain businesses and issue a “stay at home” order for all residents of the state and will be in effect through Jan. 8, 2021.
The state’s website states that this order is necessary due to the record highs in daily COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths.
Anson County is no exception to any of the rising numbers.
The county is now at 1,176 total cases as of Dec. 14 with 204 active cases, according to the Anson County Health Department. This is an increase of 71 active cases in three days.