How are North Carolina school districts doing when it comes to teacher vaccinations?

Monday, March 1, 2021
NC school districts vaccinating thousands of teachers
Across the state, teachers and support staffers continue rolling up their sleeves to get their COVID-19 shots.

North Carolina teachers and support staffers continue rolling up their sleeves to get their COVID-19 shots.

A Durham Public Schools spokesperson said they have scheduled 1,759 first-dose vaccinations for employees. That includes appointments for later this week.

The Wake County Health Department said it has vaccinated more than 5,000 people in Group 3 -- those working in child care or at Pre-K through 12th-grade schools.

"We offered appointments to over 6,000 individuals over this weekend," said Ryan Jury, the Wake County Health Department mass vaccination branch director. "A lot of that had to do with some additional vaccine that we had applied through for events and were approved and so we were able to offer more appointments this week."

Of those getting their first dose through Wake County, it is unclear how many work for the Wake County Public School System.

A spokeswoman for the district told ABC11 that they are gathering that information and will present it during Tuesday's board meeting.

A Johnston County Public Schools spokesperson said nearly half of their staffers got their first shot. 2,082 out of 5,000 employees got vaccinated through the district and health department partnership, the spokesperson said. Others got it through other providers.

The Cape Fear Valley Health System provided the first vaccine dose to more than half of Cumberland County Schools' 8,000 employees, said Chris Tart, Vice President of Professional Services for Cape Fear Valley Health System.

"We still have some signed up for this week to get more shots, so that number will continue to grow as the weeks progress," Tart said. "Some people may be on vacation and have time off. They might be sick. So, not everybody's going to take part in that first week, and there's always a certain percentage of each group that wants to wait and see and see, how others do, people they know, people they work with, how they react to the vaccine and how they how it went for them."

Tart said district employees who want the vaccine have had the opportunity to get it or schedule an appointment.

"We have been able to move on from that to Group 3, Part 2 this week because the demand has lessened from our teachers, our K-12 and pre-K, as the week went on last week, as we successfully got through that population very quickly."

Cape Fear Valley Health moved on to vaccinate the next category of people eligible under Group 3, which includes grocery store workers, farmworkers, restaurant workers, college employees and those working in meatpacking.

You don't have to be a Cumberland County resident to get your vaccine through Cape Fear Valley Health. To get more information on whether you qualify.

To schedule an appointment.