The Craven County Health Department has worked with local and state partners to implement a local COVID-19 vaccination plan in accordance with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) plan that directly aligns with Centers for Disease Control (CDC) guidance. 

CarolinaEast Health System and the Craven County Health Department are currently working to vaccinate Phase 1a priority groups which consists of health care workers caring for and working directly with patients with COVID-19, including staff responsible for cleaning and maintenance in those areas, and health care workers administering vaccine. CVS and Walgreens pharmacies are working to vaccinate long-term care staff and residents. 

The NCDHHS determines how many doses of COVID-19 vaccine are distributed to each county. Receiving entities are informed of vaccine dose amounts and shipments about one week in advance. It is not known how many doses of vaccine will be sent until that communication is received. Thus far the combined hospital and health department vaccination allotments have been adequate to meet the demand, but we are hopeful that vaccine shipments will increase in the weeks to come.

As a local medical community CarolinaEast, Coastal Carolina Health Care (CCHC), and the Craven County Health Department will be working together to vaccinate our citizens as we move into Phase 1b soon.

• Patients of CarolinaEast or CCHC, will be contacted directly by their medical provider’s office to have vaccine appointments scheduled. Patients of CarolinaEast and CCHC do not need to call their physician’s office. 
• The Craven County Health Department will soon begin vaccinations of the Phase 1b priority groups which consists of individuals 75 years of age and older, health care workers and frontline essential workers. 
• The Craven County Health Department is currently working with Craven County Schools to schedule their employees. Craven County Schools employees will not need to call for an appointment. 
• Health Department patients 75 years of age and older will be called by the Health Department to schedule their visit so there is no need for those patients to call for an appointment. 
• Please be patient. There are more than 16,000 patients ages 75 and older to be vaccinated by three entities and vaccine dosage allotments received from the NCDHHS are unknown. 

By dividing the population between CarolinaEast, CCHC and the Craven County Health Department more people can be vaccinated at a faster pace. The Phase 1b priority group is much larger than the Phase 1a priority group so it will take several weeks to work through this population. Both vaccines that are currently available are a two-shot vaccine, which means it is double the work to schedule and administer when compared to the seasonal flu shot. 

A COVID-19 vaccine call center is being established to answer questions and schedule vaccination appointments for those who will not be called by their medical providers to be scheduled. The Craven County Health Department call center will be activated Monday, January 11. A main number will be publicized once the call center is activated. There is no state website to register for these vaccines, so we are working to establish a local registration website to give people the option of registering on-line. For updates on the main number of the call center, current phase, vaccination locations, and resources please visit the COVID-19 vaccine page at www.cravencountync.gov and the Craven County Health Department Facebook page @cravencountyhealth.