Brunswick County gets 400 additional COVID-19 vaccine doses after plea to state leaders

BOLIVIA, NC (WWAY) — Brunswick County will receive an additional 400 doses this week following a plea to state leaders for more vaccines.

Brunswick County Chairman Randy Thompson attended a virtual meeting with Hattie Gawande, Deputy Director of Government Affairs at the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) Monday, to discuss Brunswick County providers’ most recent COVID-19 vaccine allocation numbers.

In discussing the need in Brunswick, Thompson acknowledges the short supply across the state.

“There’s probably a number of other counties across this state that are going through the same situation that Brunswick County’s going through they just don’t have the large percentage of 65 and older that Brunswick County has,” Thompson said.

The county has been in talks with Gov. Roy Cooper and NCDHHS Secretary Mandy K. Cohen, MD, MPH, to address concerns about the number of vaccines sent to the county’s providers in relation to its exceptionally high senior population.

His most recent letter on Jan. 31 included questions on how NCDHHS determines how many vaccines it allocates to each county’s providers.

“I appreciate Secretary Cohen and Ms. Gawande’s responsiveness to our letters, for setting up a dedicated meeting to address our questions, and to listen to our stories about the challenges our eligible residents are facing to get vaccinated here,” Thompson said.

Gawande also noted that Brunswick County would receive another 400 doses this week (Feb. 8-12) between Brunswick County Health Services and Novant Health. These doses were previously offered to other providers in the state but were declined late last week.

Brunswick County’s higher population of those 65 and older was a factor in the decision to provide these extra doses to some of the county’s providers.

Brunswick County Health Services will work with its internal and community partners this week to identify eligible members in Group 1 and 2 from within the county’s historically marginalized communities to vaccinate with these doses in accordance with the State’s plan to ensure equitable access to the vaccine.

“We are thankful for any additional doses that come our way and continue to stress to our state partners how essential it is to receive this kind of consideration in future allocation decisions to ensure we can effectively vaccinate everyone in Brunswick County who wants or needs a vaccine,” Thompson said. “We remain committed to cooperation and collaboration across all levels of government to achieve this goal.”

Appreciative of the bump in vaccines, Thompson still says the county could handle an allocation of up to 4,000 doses per week due to the county’s high population of adults 65 and up.

In Tuesday’s COVID-19 briefing, WWAY’s Sydney Bouchelle asked Dr. Cohen how much vaccine the state receives weekly and how the vaccine is distributed, citing the need in Brunswick specifically. Cohen says the state receives approximately 150,000 doses per week.

“About 120,000 [doses] are strictly distributed based on the population the county is serving. We do give a bump up for those who are serving 65 and up and low income, 65 and up from our historically marginalized communities,” Cohen said.

Also during the briefing, Cohen says they will now provide additional doses to counties holding events to serve the underserved populations specifically.

With Brunswick County making up 1.37 percent of the state’s population, the county should receive more than 1,600 doses per week, according to Cohen’s statement, but they’re currently only getting 1,275 as their baseline.

“We wish we could give more supply to everyone. We know our vaccine providers can deliver maybe three the number of vaccines we are getting right now so we understand that it is frustrating that the supply is low and folks could be doing more,” Cohen said.

You can find the latest information and updates about vaccines in Brunswick County here.