Tallulah – Graham County’s COVID-19 vaccine campaign continues, with the focus now moving on to essential workers.
Health Director Beth Booth said the county was vaccinating its essential workers, following the states’ vaccine tier list. Gov. Roy Cooper gave the nod last week to vaccinate essential workers in Group 3 of the state’s vaccine tier system.
Graham County School District Teachers have also been vaccinated, as have childcare workers.
“We’re under the essential worker group, so pretty much any essential worker can get vaccinated,” Booth said.
Booth said that most workers in the county would fit under the essential group due to the nature of the region. She also said there was still substantial interest in the vaccine, and that the county was still receiving its 100 weekly first doses of the Moderna vaccine.
The vaccine is also available at Walgreens and through the Tallulah Health Clinic.
“We’re still getting a lot of interest, and we’re still doing a good job of making a dent in our (aged) 60-plus folks,” Booth said.
She said the county had not received any of the initial 80,000 doses of the new Johnson & Johnson vaccine that had arrived in North Carolina. However, she said she believed that the county would eventually receive some of the new vaccine. Booth added that she anticipated interest in the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to increase due to it only requiring one dose. However, she said it did have a lower efface at preventing the disease than either the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine has an efficacy rate of 66 percent, but an 85 percent effectiveness against severe disease.
“I’d compare it to the flu (shot), Booth said. “It’s not so much that you’re not going to catch the flu, but that you’re not going to die from the flu.”
The new vaccine was authorized for emergency use by the FDA on Feb. 27.
Booth also said that she was not concerned about the possibility of case numbers increasing in the county, as tourists and part-time residents return with the warmer weather.
“We didn’t see a big uptick with it last summer, so I’m not anticipating seeing a big uptick with it this summer,” Booth said.