Due to severe winter weather across much of the country, the health department does not anticipate it will receive the 700 first doses of the Moderna vaccine this week that it was expecting, according to health director David Jenkins.

It received 1,000 second doses from Atrium Health on Monday and another 100 first doses Wednesday. Jenkins said the department is still scheduled to receive 700 first doses from the state sometime next week.

Because no new first doses were expected to arrive in the county this week, the department rescheduled appointments that were scheduled for Thursday and Friday. They will now be scheduled for the same days this coming week.

The county received 600 vaccine doses last week.

The department has been vaccinating around 300 people per day, Jenkins said, though it hopes to increase the number when increased allocations are provided.

The main priority for the department is still vaccinating people ages 65 and up, which comprise about 12,000 of the roughly 63,000 people living in Stanly. Group 3 vaccinations will begin Wednesday, starting with teachers and school personnel. The health department will work with local schools to make sure as many teachers get vaccinated as possible.

Gov. Roy Cooper estimated that around 240,000 people will become eligible for the vaccinations next week.

The state will then expand to additional Group 3 frontline workers on March 10. That group includes law enforcement officers, manufacturing workers, grocery store clerks, restaurant workers, mail carriers, court workers, elected officials, homeless shelter staff, public health workers, social workers and public transit workers.

Eleven percent of the county’s total population has now received the first vaccine dose, while 4 percent have been fully vaccinated.

Jenkins told the county commissioners during their meeting Monday that the health department vaccinates people from other counties while people in Stanly go out of the county to receive their vaccinations.

While the health department is the only vaccine provider in the county, Jenkins told commissioners he hopes that in the future “other providers in the community will actually have vaccines as well.”

The department typically administered first doses on Thursdays and Fridays and second doses on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Covid by the numbers

With an additional 25 new cases reported on Thursday, the county has now had more than 6,500 total cases since last March. There are 23 people currently hospitalized, while 126 people who had COVID-19 have died.