Updated Tuesday, December 22 at 10:03 am.
Charlotte-based Atrium Health has received its first shipment of a second COVID-19 vaccine. The hospital system said that it received 1,000 doses of the vaccine manufactured by pharmaceutical company Moderna on Monday morning.
Atrium has vaccinated at least 1,300 of its employees since it began receiving Pfizer vaccine doses about one week ago, according to Dr. Lewis McCurdy, an infectious disease physician at the hospital system. He said at least another 5,000 employees are signed up for shots this week.
“Being in the hospital this weekend, you could sort of feel that sense of people excited to get it. Everyone was sort of talking about it,” McCurdy told reporters on Monday.
Since the Moderna vaccine doesn’t need to be kept at ultra-cold temperatures like the Pfizer shot, McCurdy said Atrium will send the Moderna doses to its more rural locations, like those in Cleveland, Stanly and Anson counties.
As of Tuesday morning, Novant Health had vaccinated 3,361 of its team members, according to Dr. David Priest. The hospital system received nearly 7,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine last week and expects to receive 4,775 doses this week. Its North Carolina locations have not received any Moderna shipments.
"Novant Health Rowan Medical Center will be partnering with the Rowan County Health Department," Priest told reporters on Tuesday. "We anticipate Rowan County will get 1,250 doses of the Moderna vaccine but we're waiting on Rowan County to let us know when that's going to happen. We know they're working with the state and working out some details on the timing of that."
Meanwhile, two Charlotte-area health departments are preparing to receive their first shipments of the Pfizer vaccine. Mecklenburg County Public Health Director Gibbie Harris told reporters on Monday that her agency expects 975 doses, Pfizer’s minimum shipping amount, in the “next few days.”
“We’ll be holding vaccination clinics over the holidays for those individuals who fit into Phase 1a,” Harris said.“Initially, that includes health care workers, our EMTs and paramedics, our testing partners and those long-term care facilities who did not enroll in the federal program.”
Harris said people administering the vaccine, medical examiners and morticians are also part of Phase 1a in the vaccine plan.
Catawba County Public Health will also get 975 Pfizer doses this week.
