1st day of public COVID shots in Meck, nearby counties kicks off with lines, full lots
Cars lined up Wednesday at the Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte as some members of the general public got their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
And some vaccine clinics in nearby counties shut down early after dealing with long lines.
Mecklenburg opened its vaccine clinic, offering the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to anyone age 75 and up.
The county clinic offers 325 vaccination appointments a day, according to county spokeswoman Rebecca Carter. That includes people 75 and older and people in Phase 1a — including health care workers at high risk for COVID-19 exposure and long-term care facility staff and residents.
Charlotte hospital systems Atrium Health and Novant Health also kicked off their vaccine clinics for people 75 and older Wednesday morning.
Meanwhile, in some neighboring counties, things were not going smoothly.
“We have a very full parking lot and will NOT let anyone else get in line today,” Cabarrus Health Alliance posted on Facebook Wednesday before noon.
An Iredell County Health Department vaccine clinic got to max capacity by noon, too, according to county health spokeswoman Laurie Wilson.
Gaston County, which is holding a vaccine clinic on Friday, is already booked to capacity, with 600 appointments for that day, county spokesman Adam Gaub said in an email.
And Gaston had more than 23,000 calls come in to its COVID-19 vaccination hotline on Tuesday, Gaub said. For the rest of Wednesday, the hotline will go straight to voicemail to allow staff to “catch up on the hundreds of existing voicemails and email messages,’ Gaub said.
“Folks are clearly eager to sign up to get the vaccine, which is fantastic,” he said.
A few Novant patients got early access to the shot Tuesday, in a patient vaccination “test-run” for the hospital system.
One patient, 75-year old Norma DiDonato, said getting the vaccine means she’ll soon be able to hug her daughter. DiDonato, who got vaccinated Tuesday at a Charlotte-area Novant clinic, said in a statement released by Novant that she has a few underlying medical conditions.
“I am a big believer in vaccines,” DiDonato said. “I’m old enough to remember getting the polio and smallpox vaccines when I was young. Why wouldn’t anyone want to get it?”
Nearly half of Novant’s patient-facing employees in Phase 1a have scheduled or received their vaccine, Novant CEO Carl Armato said in a statement Wednesday.
“We are eager to get to work vaccinating the most vulnerable citizens and support the state’s decision to advance to this next phase,” Armato said.
As of Wednesday morning, Novant had given more than 11,000 employees the COVID-19 vaccine.
Atrium Health has administered 10,750 vaccines to employees in the Charlotte-area — and more than 20,250 vaccines to employees across the Carolinas and Georgia — as of Tuesday night, according to the hospital system.
Atrium began vaccinating its patients 75 years old and up on Wednesday morning, after contacting more than 160,000 patients across the hospital system.
Both hospital systems are contacting eligible patients through their online accounts — MyChart for Novant Health and MyAtriumHealth for Atrium.
Anyone age 75 and up can schedule an appointment at the county clinic by calling 980-314-9400 and selecting Option 3, or online at mecknc.gov/COVID-19 or https://booknow.appointment-plus.com/83g1hcpv/.
Mecklenburg is encouraging people to use the online option after having technical troubles with the phone line.
All of the clinics are accepting patients by appointment only at this time. And appointments are going quickly, with a limited supply of vaccines available.
“Our teams are working around-the-clock to vaccinate as many people as supply allows,” Armato said. “We will not stop until everyone who wants a vaccine gets a vaccine.”
Eventually, the public will be able to get vaccines at their local CVS or Walgreens, too, but that option is not yet available.
This story was originally published January 6, 2021 at 2:56 PM.
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