Some Appointments for Dare County COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic Slated for Friday May Be Cancelled

Dare County released the following update for Monday, January 25, which provides details on changes to upcoming vaccine appointments within the county.

North Carolina Department of Health & Human Services cut vaccine allotments this week across the state for many rural counties. Dare County’s allotment was cut in half, and as a result, approximately 300 appointments scheduled for this Friday, January 29, 2021 may have to be rescheduled. Due to the generous transfer of vaccines from the Outer Banks Hospital and an anticipated transfer from Onslow Memorial Hospital we will not have to reschedule all 1,100 appointments originally scheduled for Friday, January 29th.

As of this update, only appointments scheduled for January 29, 2021 are being impacted. If you or a loved one have an appointment scheduled for this clinic and if your appointment is being impacted by the vaccine shortage, you will receive a phone call to reschedule. Please be patient and wait for a staff person to call you. Everyone will be contacted with an appointment, when the vaccine is available to accommodate you.

Dare County Department of Health & Human Services has made numerous efforts to work with NC Public Health to get the additional vaccines needed to meet appointments scheduled this week and will continue to advocate for increased vaccine supply for its residents.

“There are no words adequate to describe the frustration and dismay felt by myself and our team over having to cancel vaccination appointments for Friday’s clinic due to no fault of our own. The people in Dare County and rural North Carolina deserve equitable vaccine allocation from the state,” commented Dr. Sheila Davies, Director of the Dare County Department of Health & Human Services. “We have been modeling the way for how to safely and efficiently administer large numbers of vaccines and have repeatedly communicated to the state that we could vaccinate 2,000 – 4,000 people per week if those vaccines would be allocated to us.”

You may direct any concerns or questions regarding vaccine allocation for Dare County to your state representatives or North Carolina Public Health’s customer service center at 1-800-662-7030.

Communications and Information Sharing

Dare County DHHS has an established schedule of communication to share information regarding COVID-19. Every Tuesday, a written update and a video update which includes an overview of the previous week’s COVID-19 key metrics is issued. Additional updates will be released as needed. All released videos and written updates can be found on our website, DHHS facebook page, Dare County Twitter page, and Dare Emergency Management Twitter page. If you would like to receive these updates directly to your email, please sign up to receive our enotifications.

New positive cases are updated on the dashboard on our website and shared on the DHHS facebook page when we receive them. To find the most up-to-date information on COVID-19 cases in Dare County visit www.darenc.com/covid19. State COVID-19 data is available at https://covid19.ncdhhs.gov/dashboard.

Contact Us

We encourage you to stay informed by visiting www.darenc.com/covid19 or by visiting the CDC or NC DHHS websites. If you have specific needs or questions you may also call the Dare County COVID-19 call center open Monday-Friday from 8:30 to 5:00 at 252-475-5008.