ZIP code rankings don’t present a complete picture of the pandemic in North Carolina, but they do offer snapshots.
Since the spring, the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services has tracked COVID-19 cases by individual ZIP codes. Out of more than 750 ZIP codes in the state’s database, eight have reported more than one case for every 10 residents.
The highest-ranking ZIP codes tend to have smaller populations where viral spread sends per capita case rates rocketing. Hard hit urban areas don’t appear at the very top of this list, and the stories of countless nursing homes ravaged by outbreaks can get buried in the data.
The virus has now killed 6,561 people in the state.
Yet, more help is on the way.
This week, the second doses of the Pfizer vaccine will be sent to 53 hospitals across the state that started administering the vaccine two weeks ago. The two Pfizer vaccine shots are to be given 21 days apart.
On Monday, CVS and Walgreens began administering nearly 100,000 Moderna vaccine doses to North Carolina nursing home residents, an important step for the congregate living communities ravaged by the virus.
“This has been a really, really challenging year, and this represents hope and optimism that life may return to normal for our residents and their families and our staff members,” said Adam Sholar, president and CEO of the N.C. Health Care Facilities Association, which represents most nursing homes in the state. “The fact that today’s finally here is really wonderful. I don’t know how else to say it.”
North Carolinians can now see how many people in each county have received the coronavirus vaccine.
This week the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services introduced a new online dashboard to track the number of administered vaccines by county residents and provides statewide vaccine data broken down by race, age, gender, and ethnicity. The data will be updated weekly.
As of Wednesday morning, 24,500 first doses had been administered statewide. The two available vaccines –from Pfizer and Moderna – each requires two doses, with 21 days separating the Pfizer shots and 28 days between the Moderna shots.
At least some residents in all but one of the state s 100 counties had received their first doses by Wednesday morning. Gates County, in the northeastern part of the state, was the lone exception.
When they eventually return to classrooms, thousands of North Carolina students - along with their teachers - will have access to rapid COVID-19 testing.
The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services has selected 17 school districts and 11 charter schools to receive more than 50,000 federally funded rapid antigen tests through its pilot testing program. Each school plans to offer classroom instruction for either some or all of its students this winter.
“This program gives us another tool in our tool kit to slow the spread of COVID-19 across our state and to keep children in the classroom, which we know is vital not only to their academic growth but also to their health and emotional development,” state health secretary Mandy Cohen said in a statement last week.
Brian Gordon
Asheville Citizen Times
Gov. Roy Cooper has pardoned four men who were wrongfully convicted of murder in Buncombe County, ending a decades-long legal battle surrounding the death of Walter Rodney Bowman.
Though Kenneth Kagonyera, Larry Williams, Damian Mills and Teddy Isbell had already been found innocent in connection to the 2000 shooting of Bowman, a Fairview resident, the pardons now allow each to pursue financial compensation from the state for their wrongful convictions.
Cooper also issued a pardon for Ronnie Long, a Concord resident who was freed in August after serving more than 40 years in prison for a rape he didn’t commit. These were the first pardons Cooper had issued in office.