Mecklenburg County, the second-most populous in North Carolina, issued a press release today noting that it had received 975 doses of the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday Dec. 22. It administered 20 doses on the first day.
The vaccine will be distributed by the state in amounts that are to be used within 10 days. The Mecklenburg County Public Health department received an ultracold freezer on Monday to store the vaccine.
Business North Carolina asked the Mecklenburg officials about their plans for the vaccinations:
How long will it take for these 975 doses to be administered?
We hope to administer all 975 doses within the next week. Beginning next week, we will be administering vaccine 6 days a week, except of the holidays.
Why would you only administer 20 doses on the first day when there are 975 available?
As you can imagine, the vaccine delivery process can be challenging and unpredictable. We were expecting the delivery this week but were not informed of an exact date/time. When the vaccine was delivered we activated our plan to administer the first doses. We are excited that we were able to vaccinate 20 individuals in such a short period of time.
Surely there is a great urgency to get these vaccines administered, correct?
We are “all hands on deck” to maintain our COVID-19 response operation and administer COVID-19 vaccines as quickly and safely as possible.
Mecklenburg County Data
As of Dec. 22, Mecklenburg County has reported 57,458 laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 519 related deaths. Half of those deaths were connected to long-term care facilities .
An average of 340 individuals with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 infections were hospitalized in the county over the last week. That average has more than doubled in the last month.