Some Vaccination Updates for this week:
US Vaccination Tracking (Bloomberg Vaccination Tracker): Total Doses Available = 102,384,897
Total Doses Administered = 78,631,601
Percentage of Available Doses Administered = 76.8%
Percentage of Population Receiving 1 Dose = 15.6%
Percentage of Population Fully Vaccinated = 7.9%
NC Vaccination Tracking (Bloomberg Vaccination Tracker): Total Doses Available = 3,026,282
Total Doses Administered = 2,545,103
Percentage of Available Doses Administered = 84.1%
Percentage of Population Receiving 1 Dose = 15.7%
Percentage of Population Fully Vaccinated = 8.5%
1. Some good news!! Looking at the 65+ age group in NC, I estimate
56% of this population has received their first vaccine dose. Based on the latest update from NCDHHS, 974,090 people aged 65+ have received their first dose, out of a total population of 1,751,510 people aged 65+.
2. Supply of the vaccines continues to improve. This week, the supply of Moderna and Pfizer vaccines will be 15.2M doses (up from 14.5M last week). With the addition of 2.8M J&J doses, the total for this week will be 18M doses.
3. On the local news tonight, they said only 50% of the teachers in Johnson County have signed up to be vaccinated. They also mentioned that this seems to be a similar statistic in other counties. To me, it is very disappointing the number is so low and hopefully more teachers will decide to become vaccinated, when they realize they can get vaccinated more easily now.
4. Durham County has not opened a mass vaccination site they promised a couple of weeks ago. They are saying that vaccine supply has been an issue, but WRAL news reported tonight that between Duke Hospital and the Durham Health Department, they will have close to 10,000 doses made available this week. Hopefully, this will get them to open the promised mass vaccination site.
5. In Wake County, vaccinations are going well and the PNC Arena site is working out very well for the county. The health department mentioned that they have slots available for vaccination later this week. My wife is scheduled to get her first vaccination tomorrow morning. Due to her job, she is in Group 3. She was able to schedule her appointment this past weekend through the county health department with no issues.
6. Reportedly, the Biden administration has set aside $1B to spend on a campaign around vaccines. So far, they have not spent any of this money, citing the limited supply of doses. I would think the time to encourage people to get vaccinated would be now, so the demand is there as vaccines continue to ramp up. It seems rather short-sighted on their part. Maybe spending some of this money would help to address some of the vaccine hesitancy we are seeing in certain communities and groups of people.
US Vaccination Progress - 100M Doses in 100 Days Target: NC Vaccination Progress - 3.2M Doses in 100 Days Target: