State data reveals closer look at vaccination rates across Stanly County

Published 3:25 pm Thursday, May 13, 2021

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New data on COVID-19 vaccination rates across Stanly County reveal a more in-depth look at the effort to vaccinate the general population.

Data show the rates of residents ages 16 and older fully vaccinated against the coronavirus across Stanly County by census tracts, areas smaller than zip codes that provide neighborhood-level details. There are 13 tracts in Stanly — a lot fewer than more urban counties like Mecklenburg — that range from only a few miles to stretching across vast portions of the county.

For the geographic tract that extends into Badin, roughly 30 percent of residents are fully vaccinated, the highest in the county, while the tract that encompasses Richfield and Misenheimer in the northern part of the county has only 16 percent of residents vaccinated.

Only five of the census tracts are at or above 23.1 percent of residents who are fully vaccinated, while only three tracts are above the 25.5 percent of people who are partially vaccinated.

In two of the three tracts where Black people comprise at least 20 percent of the population, downtown Albemarle and around Badin, the vaccination rates are the highest in the county, at 30 percent and 27 percent, respectively.

There doesn’t appear to be any correlation between more affluent areas having higher vaccination rates. Tract 9302 around Badin has one of the county’s lowest median household incomes at roughly $49,000, but the vaccination rate is 30 percent. On the flip side, tract 9308.02 around Stanfield has the highest median income at almost $65,000 yet the vaccination rate is 22 percent.

The census tract data runs through April 27. More than 11,440 people were fully vaccinated as of that date. As of Thursday, more than 14,500 people have been fully vaccinated.

Here is a look at each of the 13 tracts and the total vaccination percentage:

  • Tract 9302 which includes Badin: 29.6 percent of residents;
  • Tract 9312.01 which includes downtown Albemarle: 27.2 percent;
  • Tract 9303 which includes area around Chuck Morehead Park: 26.8 percent;
  • Tract 9308.01 which includes Locust: 24.0;
  • Tract 9311 which includes Norwood: 23.5 percent;
  • Tract 9305 which includes eastern area of Albemarle: 22.4 percent;
  • Tract 9310 which includes Aquadale: 22.3 percent;
  • Tract 9312.02 which includes southwest Albemarle: 21.7 percent;
  • Tract 9308.02 which includes Stanfield: 21.5 percent;
  • Tract 9307 which is south of N.C. Highway 73 and includes Millingport Road: 21.3 percent;
  • Tract 9309 which includes Oakboro: 21.1 percent;
  • Tract 9301.02 which includes New London: 20.4 percent; and
  • Tract 9301.01 which includes Richfield: 16.2 percent.

About Chris Miller

Chris Miller has been with the SNAP since January 2019. He is a graduate of NC State and received his Master's in Journalism from the University of Maryland. He previously wrote for the Capital News Service in Annapolis, where many of his stories on immigration and culture were published in national papers via the AP wire.

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