Mass vaccine clinic under consideration

A tri-county mass vaccination clinic could provide a boost to Clay County's limited allocation of COVID-19 vaccines. "Myself, Cherokee and Graham have been talking about doing a mass clinic, hopefully on a Saturday before the end of the month," interim Public Health Director Clarissa Rogers said at the Clay County Commission meeting on Feb. 4.

"We have put in a request to the state to receive vaccines." Rogers, who previously served as public health nursing supervisor, was

recently approved as Interim Public Health Director by both North Carolina State Public Health and the Clay County Board of Commissioners. She asked the state to approve a mass clinic for the area in the wake of its push toward that type of format.

"The state took a lot of what was supposed to be allocated to local health departments within the state and a large number of those vaccinations were sent to mass vaccination sites," Rogers said. The proposed area clinic would attempt to utilize EMS workers, school nurses and other healthcare workers as volunteers who would administer shots.

While Clay County Health Department is allocated second-dose shots for each firstdose shots it receives, the state is set to supply just 100 first-dose vaccines each week for the next several weeks. "If you do the math, at 100 doses per week, when you have 1,600 on the waiting list, it's going to take a while," Rogers said. "They're supposed to be reevaluating that soon, so it might increase."

North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said he spoke with the Biden Administration Tuesday and was told the state will get another five percent increase in vaccine supply this week. Help may also soon come in the form of Johnson & Johnson's single-shot COVID-19 vaccine, which could become available as early as March. An FDA advisory committee will hold a public meeting on Friday, Feb. 26 to make a recommendation about whether to grant the company's request for emergency use authorization.

Johnson & Johnson announced at the end of January that its vaccine is 85 percent effective at preventing severe cases of the virus and 66 percent effective at preventing moderate cases of the disease. Rogers said the health department frequently receives questions about side effects of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, but so far, only one local resident who has received it has been advised by a doctor to not take the second dose.

The most common side effects of the first dose are similar to those associated with a flu shot, while the second dose can cause flu-like symptoms. Clay County Health Departed reported 49 active cases of COVID-19 within the county as of Tuesday, while North Carolina reached another grim milestone the same day by surpassing 10,000 deaths due to the virus since the pandemic began