Coronavirus: Bladen County, as advised by DHHS, preparing for vaccine availability in November

ELIZABETHTOWN — Bladen County’s director of its Health Department says the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services has advised the agency to be ready for coronavirus vaccinations as early as November.

Dr. Terri Duncan shared the news Tuesday night at the county commissioners meeting. DHHS, however, has remained silent and makes no mention of it on its website in the area labeled “treatment” and in a sublisting for “Is a vaccine available?”

Presently, no vaccine has been approved.

In response to questions from the Bladen Journal the day after the meeting, Duncan wrote in an email, “NCDHHS shared that vaccines may be available as early as November for ‘at risk groups.’ Limited quantities will be available, perhaps in batches of 100. High risk populations have not been identified at this time. Vaccines for the general public may be available as early as March 2021. The Health Department is preparing for the vaccine administration and will be working with local community partners as additional information and guidance is received.”

The instruction from DHHS has not been highly publicized by the agency or Gov. Roy Cooper, who in March initiated lockdowns on people and businesses — some of which remain in place. His moves were first received as safety conscious and have since become politicized as he seeks reelection.

CEOs of nine drug manufacturing companies, considered the world leaders to discover a vaccine for the virus, signed a pledge on Tuesday aimed at boosting confidence in their work by the American and international public and to toss politics out of the equation. Their signatures are with the promise to follow “high ethical standards and sound scientific principles” as they do research and testing.

The signatures represented Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Moderna, Novavax and Pfizer, and European companies AstraZeneca, BioNTech, GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi.

Bladen County on Wednesday had its lab-confirmed case count adjusted by one subtraction. Since the pandemic began, the county has tallied 770 cases, 708 recoveries and 10 fatalities. Nine people are hospitalized among 52 active cases.

The postal ZIP code report from the state Department of Health and Human Services lists 216 cases in Elizabethtown and White Lake since the pandemic began; 96 in Bladenboro; 76 in East Arcadia; 70 in Clarkton; 64 in White Oak; 52 in Tar Heel; 17 in Kelly; 15 in Council; and seven in Dublin.

Deaths number two in the ZIP for Elizabethtown and White Lake, and one each in Dublin, Bladenboro, Tar Heel, White Oak and Kelly. The other three are not linked to a ZIP code unique to Bladen County.

Wednesday’s totals from the state included:

• 2,958 deaths, up 49 from Tuesday’s noon report. Twenty-six were recorded in congregate living settings.

• 179,532 cases, up 897.

• 916 hospitalized, up 89.

• 2,490,113 tests, up 20,136.

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. But for others, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, the highly contagious virus can cause severe symptoms and be fatal.

In adjacent counties to Bladen, there have been 213 deaths and 12,108 cases. Cumberland has 71 deaths and 4,532 cases; Robeson has 63 deaths and 3,887 cases; Columbus has 52 deaths and 1,207 cases; Sampson has 22 deaths and 1,681 cases; and Pender has five deaths and 801 cases.

Congregate living settings in North Carolina have totaled 1,531 deaths and 18,735 positive cases. Outbreaks have been identified and are active at 192 nursing homes, 101 residential care facilities, 43 correctional institutions and eight other facilities. Of those, seven are in Cumberland, two in Columbus, and one each in Bladen, Sampson, Robeson and Pender.

Sampson has one cluster.

With 86 percent of the state’s hospitals reporting, DHHS says there is availability of 72 percent of the ventilators, 25 percent of the intensive care unit beds and 29 percent of all hospital beds.

In the personal protective equipment category, the supply of gloves is at a 99 days supply; all other categories are at least nine months.

A combined 13 metropolitan counties have the state’s three largest cities and account for 44.4 percent of the deaths (1,313) and 50.1 percent of the cases (89,858).

In the Charlotte area, Mecklenburg County has 322 deaths and 26,479 positive cases, Gaston County has 67 deaths and 4,388 cases, Rowan County has 79 deaths and 2,982 cases, Cabarrus County has 56 deaths and 3,467 cases, and Union County has 52 deaths and 4,234 cases — a total of 576 deaths and 41,550 cases.

In and near the Triangle area, Wake County has 212 deaths and 15,919 cases, Durham County has 86 deaths and 7,151 cases, Johnston County has 52 deaths and 4,041 cases, and Orange County has 51 deaths and 2,443 cases — a total of 401 deaths and 29,554 cases.

In the interior of the 12-county Piedmont Triad, Guilford County has 174 deaths and 7,409 cases, Forsyth County has 84 deaths and 6,481 cases, Randolph County has 46 deaths and 2,523 cases, and Davidson County has 32 deaths and 2,341 cases — a total of 336 deaths and 18,754 cases.

According to the coronavirus tracker of Johns Hopkins University, available on BladenJournal.com, more than 6.3 million confirmed cases and 189,000 deaths are counted in the U.S. The second-highest case total is in India, with more than 4.3 million.

There are more than 27.6 million cases worldwide, with more than 898,000 deaths.