Questions Loom About Vaccine Allotments Headed To NC: Cooper

CHARLOTTE, NC — As healthcare workers begin receiving the first round of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in North Carolina, questions loom about how much the state will receive in future shipments, Gov. Roy Cooper said Tuesday afternoon.

Monday morning, shipments of the Pfizer vaccine were distributed to three hospitals in the state. Tuesday, eight hospitals were to receive shipments and another 42 were to receive an allotment of doses on Thursday.

State health officials are also preparing to receive the Moderna vaccine under federal consideration. Should Moderna's vaccine receive authorization by an independent U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) later this week, North Carolina could receive 175,000 doses of the vaccine by next week, Cooper said.

"Just over half of those will go to long-term care facilities. We expect them to begin getting vaccination at the end of the month," he said.

"Beyond that, questions remain," Cooper said. "North Carolina and every other state still need clarity from the federal government as to how many doses of the Pfizer vaccine we will receive going forward."

DHHS has developed a database system to help manage the distribution of vaccine supplies, which is logistically complex, Cooper said. The database would record how many people have received the first dose so healthcare provided would know who needed the second dose, both of which need to be from the same manufacturer.

"You've got to remember, with Pfizer it's 21 days and with Moderna, it's 28 days," between doses, he said.

As the state receives more vaccine and it is pushed out further throughout the state, logistics will get more complicated, he said.

DHHS has also set up a "war room" to help answer healthcare provider questions, he said.

North Carolina health officials, along with those in other states, have been told they will receive information each Friday about vaccine shipments arriving the following week, "giving the states just a few hours to direct where these shipments will go," Cooper said.

Cooper said he raised the issued Monday during a call with other governors and Vice President Mike Pence. "I asked for more time to plan, which is critical as our vaccines roll out across the state and they said they will work on it," he said.

SEE ALSO: First Doses Of Vaccine Arrive In North Carolina: Gov. Cooper

North Carolina's tally of COVID-19 cases increased by 5,236 new cases Tuesday, increasing the state's total to 446,601 known cases, according to state public health officials. At least 26 new deaths were reported Tuesday, increasing the state's death toll to 5,881, according to data released by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.

As of Dec. 15, about 10.9 percent of tests conducted in the state were positive.

Hospitalizations also surged to 2,735 patients Tuesday, 182 more than reported Monday.

According to DHHS data, 2,013 staffed intensive care unit beds — or about 82 percent of the supply reported in North Carolina — and about 76 percent of the state's 21,000 staffed inpatient hospital beds were in use as of Tuesday.

In past weeks, hospitals around the state have expanded their COVID-19 units, converting other units to accommodate patients with the virus, DHHS Secretary Mandy Cohen said Tuesday during a news conference.

"It does mean that there's less capacity for other kinds of things as we try to staff up more on COVID," she said.

"For us in North Carolina, it's not a physical space but rather a limitation on the people — the doctors, the nurses in particular, that are needed and that are really strained here. We have physical space but what we need to manage carefully are the people and the staffing," she said.