Mecklenburg COVID vaccine appointments to open for all adults. Here’s how to sign up
Mecklenburg County will open up new COVID-19 vaccine appointments for its Bojangles Coliseum clinic starting at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday. The new slots mark the first time everyone in Groups 1-5 — including anyone over the age of 16 — can sign up for a COVID-19 vaccine.
The new appointments run through April 12. Group 5 will become eligible starting on April 7, so anyone in that group should make an appointment on or after that day.
And another slate of new appointments will go live on April 7 for the following week, Mecklenburg County said Monday Beginning on that day, the county will start releasing new coronavirus vaccine appointments every Wednesday at 8:30 a.m.
Anyone eligible for the shot can book the new appointments starting at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday online at starmed.care or by calling 980-314-9400 (option 3 for English, option 8 for Spanish).
The last time the county opened up a slate of new appointments for the clinic, the 650 spots were fully booked within five minutes, according to county vaccination partner StarMed Healthcare.
Increase in vaccine supply in April
Mecklenburg County did not release the exact number of appointments that will go live Tuesday.
But Mecklenburg County Public Health Director Gibbie Harris has cautioned that vaccine appointments could be scarce for a few weeks as more and more people become eligible.
“We are getting larger amounts of vaccines into the community,” Harris said last week. “But there’s not going to be enough that very first week that you’re eligible for everybody to get the vaccine.”
Harris said she expects to see an increase in vaccine supply in early April and hopes to have enough vaccine supply for everyone who wants a shot by May.
Trailing the state vaccination rate
More than 120,000 Mecklenburg County residents have now been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. But the county still lags behind the state’s vaccination rate.
In Mecklenburg, 17.4% of county residents have been at least partially vaccinated. At the state level, 26.4% of NC residents are at least partially vaccinated, as of Friday.
The state relaxed some coronavirus restrictions on Friday, allowing some businesses, like retail stores, museums and salons to reopen at full capacity.
But health leaders urge North Carolinians to continue wearing masks and following social distancing guidelines.
“The mask mandate is still in effect,” Harris said last week. “…Anytime you go out of your house, you should have a mask on.”
This story was originally published March 29, 2021 at 10:49 AM.
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