This week, more than 10,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine are scheduled to be administered to people 65 and older across UNC Health's 15 vaccination clinics.
Tim: Was there any point where you felt you like you were going to die?
Wayne: Yes.
Tim: Describe that moment.
Wayne: It s like you figure if you close your eyes, you won t wake up no more. I don t know how I caught it. It is deadly. A lot of people walking around hollering ain t nothing to it, there ain t nothing to it. It is something to COVID.
Despite surviving the battle with COVID-19, the war continues, the 67-year-old is now on medication to regulate his heart. He can t move around without his walker and oxygen machine.
Before being diagnosed with COVID-19, Winstead s only preexisting condition was high blood pressure.
I feel like I ve been on house arrest since March basically, he said.
Ron is 74 and lives in Wake County with his 75-year-old wife, Sharon, who is eligible for a vaccine through Phase 1B. However, under the current guidelines, he is not. I have a sister that lives less than two miles away, Ron said. I m so afraid of this virus that I won t go out and visit my own sister.
He s been calling his primary care physician and can t get any answers and experts say while there is a limited supply of the COVID-19 vaccine, that s the best thing to do.
UNC Health said in an internal email that they acquired 725 COVID-19 vaccines originally meant for the Orange County Health Department Thursday night that "must be" used by Monday morning.
UNC Health: No one cutting in line for vaccinations
UNC Health said Thursday that rumors ineligible staff members were getting coronavirus vaccinations ahead of workers exposed to COVID-19 patients weren t true.