COVID-19 update: health department’s vaccine appointments fill up quickly

Published 6:32 pm Thursday, January 7, 2021

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The Beaufort County Health Department is set to begin administering COVID-19 vaccines Monday to residents who are covered in the first subgroup of Phase 1b of the county’s vaccination plan. All appointment times have been filled for that subgroup, which covers everyone ages 75 and above. On Thursday evening, the health department reported that it had scheduled 1,200 appointments for that subgroup within the past 24 hours.

“We thank everyone for your interest in receiving the COVID vaccine,” a health department press release reads. “Unfortunately, all available appointments have been filled at this time. We encourage everyone to monitor our website at bchd.net and local media outlets frequently for information pertaining to future vaccine opportunities.”

Earlier this week, Health Director Jim Madson provided an update on the county’s vaccination plan.

Beaufort County reported one COVID-19-related death Thursday, raising the county’s coronavirus death toll to 68. The county also reported 80 new cases and 10 recoveries.

Beaufort County health officials know of  789 active cases of COVID-19 among county residents. Fifteen of those individuals are hospitalized. Beaufort County’s total confirmed case count is now 3,103, and 2,236 county residents have recovered from the virus.

North Carolina reported a record-high 10,398 new cases of COVID-19 and 137 coronavirus-related deaths on Thursday.

Eastern North Carolina counties with total confirmed cases include: Bertie, (1,296), Beaufort (3,103),  Bladen (2,009), Brunswick (4,926), Carteret (3,024), Camden (334), Chowan (893), Columbus (4,023), Craven (5,630), Currituck (750), Dare (1,212), Duplin (4,489), Edgecombe (3,405), Gates (394), Greene (1,612), Halifax (3,206), Hertford (1,475),  Hyde (413), Jones (448), Lenoir (3,608), Martin (1,545), New Hanover (10,384), Northampton (1,143), Onslow (9,816), Pamlico (576), Pasquotank (1,985), Pender  (3,074), Perquimans (598), Pitt (12,584) Sampson (5,218), Tyrrell (191), Washington  (529), Wayne (7,867) and Wilson (6,034). Mecklenburg (68,155), Wake (48,452), Guilford (26,969), Forsyth (22,248), Gaston (17,078) and Durham (15,775) counties have the most cases.