Thousands descend on Mecklenburg COVID vaccine clinics. Here’s what to know.
A number of new vaccine clinics opened their doors on Friday, serving thousands of Charlotte-area residents eager to get a shot to combat the coronavirus.
The county’s biggest clinic of the week opened Friday morning at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. That event expects to administer more than 16,000 shots Friday through Sunday.
Appointments are full for the event, a public-private partnership between the speedway, Honeywell, Atrium Health and Tepper Sports & Entertainment.
The speedway event is a precursor to a similar mass vaccination event planned for the Panthers’ Bank of America Stadium next weekend, according to Teppers Sports & Entertainment President Tom Glick. Billionaire David Tepper owns the Panthers.
The clinic at Bank of America Stadium will likely be a larger event, Atrium’s Dr. Scott Rissmiller told reporters Friday — potentially vaccinating between 20,000 to 30,000 people.
The speedway clinic is a drive-thru vaccination event. “This is such a great location,” Rissmiller said. “Not only do they get their vaccines, but they also get to do a lap around the speedway.”
Honeywell helped Atrium and the speedway coordinate many logisitics of the event, including offering handheld scanners to cut down on paperwork.
“Charlotte is our home,” Honeywell chief supply officer Torsten Pilz said Friday. “…We’re very grateful that we were given the opportunity to support this great community.”
Pilz said Honeywell CEO Darius Adamczyk and Atrium Health CEO Gene Woods saw North Carolina’s vaccine rollout was lagging. They believed a public-private partnership between the companies, along with the speedway and Tepper Sports & Entertainment, could help “fundamentally change the trajectory and help the state significantly.”
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More clinics
Mecklenburg County Public Health will also host a coronavirus vaccine event Friday, at the C.W. Williams Community Health Center on Wilkinson Boulevard.
And county public health also will administer vaccines at a Mecklenburg shelter and at the Mecklenburg County Jail. Saturday, the county will offer vaccines at a “community provider on the east side of Charlotte.”
On Monday, Mecklenburg County Public Health will be working with Inlivian, formerly the Charlotte Housing Authority, to distribute vaccines to eligible residents.
“We are working to administer vaccines both at the Bojangles clinic and in the community as we work to reach residents and especially in communities that have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19,” county medical director Meg Sullivan told reporters Friday.
But vaccine events are limited by supply, Sullivan said.
The county will use up its supply of COVID-19 vaccines by the end of the day on Monday, and will only receive another 1,950 doses from the state this coming week, she said.
Meanwhile, Novant Health will hold a vaccine clinic at Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, Novant’s Dr. Jerome Williams Jr. told reporters Friday. Appointments for that event have already been scheduled, he said.
North Carolina is currently offering vaccines to health care workers, long-term care facility residents and staff, and anyone age 65 and older.
Cases on the rise
COVID-19 hospitalizations had been rising in Mecklenburg for weeks, especially as the full effects of Christmas and New Years gatherings came to light. But experts say hospitalizations and other COVID-19 trends could now be slowly moving in the right direction.
Even with expanded access to vaccines, doctors say North Carolinians must continue to follow COVID-19 restrictions, including wearing masks and social distancing.
“We know the virus remains a real threat in our communities,” Novant Health infectious disease expert Dr. David Priest told reporters Tuesday.
Deaths related to COVID-19 remain high in Mecklenburg, county public health director Gibbie Harris said. On Tuesday, coronavirus-related deaths in Mecklenburg surpassed 700 for the first time, including the county’s first “pediatric death.”
“The last several weeks have been the worse we’ve seen so far, in terms of the number of deaths in our community,” Harris said.
This story was originally published January 22, 2021 at 8:19 AM.
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