Free COVID Testing and Vaccination Schedule Updates

2021 Free COVID-19 TESTING

Davie County’s free COVID-19  testing will continue in 2021 with a few changes. Beginning January 4, 2021, all testing will be conducted at Davie County Community Park, 151 Southwood Drive in Mocksville.

Testing will be available Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

There will be no testing on January 18 due to the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

Preregistration for testing is online at https://lhi.care/covidtesting or by calling (877) 562-4850.

For more information, call 336-753-6540 or visit https://covid19.ncdhhs.gov/.

North Carolina Vaccination Prioritization Plan 

The vaccine will eventually be available to anyone, but supplies are currently limited, so the state is issuing vaccinations in phases and by groups, according to N.C. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Mandy Cohen.

North Carolina is currently in Phase 1A, which includes healthcare workers working with COVID-19 patients, healthcare workers administering the vaccine, and long-term care staff and residents.

Cohen said North Carolina might move into Phase 1B in early January.

North Carolina Vaccination Schedule

Below is the full breakdown of the state vaccination plan phases as detailed on the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NC DHHS) website.

Phase 1A: Health care workers fighting COVID-19 & long-term care staff and residents.

• Health care workers caring for and working directly with patients with COVID-19, including staff responsible for cleaning and maintenance in those areas
• Health care workers administering the vaccine
• Long-term care staff and residents—people in skilled nursing facilities and adult, family, or group homes.

Phase 1B: Adults 75 years or older and frontline essential workers.

There is not enough vaccine for everyone in this phase to be vaccinated at the same time. Vaccinations will be available to groups in the following order.

• Group 1: Anyone 75 years or older, regardless of health status or living situation
• Group 2: Health care workers and frontline essential workers 50 years or older. The CDC defines frontline essential workers as first responders (e.g., firefighters and police officers), corrections officers, food and agricultural workers, U.S. Postal Service workers, manufacturing workers, grocery store workers, public transit workers, those who work in the education sector (teachers and support staff members) and child care workers.
• Group 3: Health care workers and frontline essential workers of any age

Phase 2: Adults at high risk for exposure and at increased risk of severe illness.

Vaccinations will happen by group in the following order:

• Group 1: Anyone 65-74 years old, regardless of health status or living situation
• Group 2: Anyone 16-64 years old with high-risk medical conditions that increase risk of severe disease from COVID such as cancer, COPD, serious heart conditions, sickle cell disease, Type 2 diabetes, among others, regardless of living situation
• Group 3: Anyone who is incarcerated or living in other close group living settings and is not already vaccinated due to age, medical condition, or job function.
• Group 4: Essential workers not yet vaccinated. The CDC defines these as workers in transportation and logistics, water and wastewater, food service, shelter and housing (e.g., construction), finance (e.g., bank tellers), information technology and communications, energy, legal, media, and public safety (e.g., engineers), and public health workers.

Phase 3: Students

• College and university students
• K-12 students age 16 and over. Younger children will only be vaccinated when the vaccine is approved for them.

Phase 4: Anyone else who wants a COVID-19 vaccination.

Davie County Health and Human Services Has Begun Implementing the State Plan 

The Davie County Health and Human Services (DCHHS) Division of Public Health received its first shipment of the COVID-19 vaccine on December 21st. According to DCHHS Director Suzanne Wright, initial doses of the vaccine have been reserved for frontline healthcare workers and long-term care facilities as directed by the NCDHHS vaccine rollout plan. Additional groups will be served as the vaccine is available.

“Supplies will be limited at first. Independent state and federal public health advisory committees have determined that the best way to fight COVID-19 is to start first with vaccinations for those most at risk,  reaching more people as the vaccine supply increases from January to June,” added Wright.

DCHHS held a drive-thru vaccine clinic for Phase 1A recipients on December 22 and began drive-thru clinics for both Phase 1A and Phase 1B recipients on December 23. 

Another COVID-19 vaccine drive-thru clinic will take place on Thursday, Dec. 31 from 1:00-4:30 p.m. at the Davie County Health Department. This clinic is NOT OPEN to the general public and only available to individuals in Phase 1A and Phase 1B of the distribution prioritization plan.

Individuals who qualify for vaccination should arrive no earlier than 12:45 p.m. and should complete the Recipient Vaccination Questionnaire (download, print, and complete by clicking the link below) before arrival to allow the process to move more quickly.

Additional vaccine clinics will be held as the vaccine supply allows.  To stay up-to-date on vaccine clinics, follow Davie County Government on Facebook at www.facebook.com/DavieCountyGovernment.

NC DHHS Has Introduced a Vaccination Dashboard

North Carolinians can now see how many people in each county have received the coronavirus vaccine.

The NC DHHS introduced a new online dashboard that tracks the number of administered vaccines by county residents and provides statewide vaccine data broken down by race, age, gender, and ethnicity. The data will be updated every Tuesday. 

According to the dashboard, as of 8 p.m. on December 28th, 63,571 North Carolinians had received the first dose of the vaccine including 559 Davie County residents.   

North Carolina’s information on people vaccinated comes from the COVID-19 Vaccine Management System (CVMS), a secure, web-based system provided for free to all who administer COVID-19 vaccinations. Please note: the data shown is preliminary and may change. There can be a 72-hour lag in data reported to NCDHHS. Data does not currently include vaccinations in long-term care facilities, as those are being managed by the federal government through a contract with CVS and Walgreens. NCDHHS is working with both companies to access and report this data.

For now, please keep practicing the 3 Ws: Wear a mask, wait six feet apart, wash your hands—until everyone has a chance to vaccinate.