Chatham County plans booked-solid vaccination event Monday

More than 15,000 people have reached out to Chatham County, anxious to get vaccinated against the coronavirus. County health officials say that number is "far more" than the amount of vaccines given to county by the state.

Posted 10:55 p.m. Jan 22, 2021 — Updated 11:10 p.m. Jan 22, 2021

Maggie Brown

, WRAL multiplatform producer

PITTSBORO, N.C. — More than 15,000 people have reached out to the Chatham County Health Department, anxious to get vaccinated against the coronavirus. County health officials said that number is "far more" than the number of vaccines given to the county by the state.

Host of problems slows rollout of COVID-19 vaccine in NC

On Thursday, county health officials were told that they would only be receiving 200 first doses of the vaccine from the state next week. Officials expect to deliver all they have on hand Monday at vaccination clinic

County officials said they are "capable of vaccinating more people than this allocation allows."

The state has received just over 1 million doses from the federal government since Dec. 14. As of Friday, more than 625,000 of those vaccines had been administered across the state.

A total of 410 people are scheduled to receive their first vaccine dose at a vaccination clinic at the Chatham County Agriculture and Conference Center in Pittsboro. Because the county was provided with so few vaccine doses, health officials said all appointments for this site are full.

"We are sorry that our current allocations from the state do not allow us to vaccinate all who are eligible and interested right away, and these efforts will take time," said Chatham County Public Health Director Mike Zelek.

CDC data: NC has given out 38% of available COVID-19 vaccine doses

The county is developing a contact list based off of its website and voicemail box to try and meet demand. County officials will reach out to residents who called or left their information online and schedule them appointments as vaccine becomes available, Zelek said.

"Staff are currently adding information from hundreds of voicemails left on the COVID-19 vaccine infoline to the database and are not able to accept new voicemails at this time," health officials said in a statement.

County health officials encouraged residents to reach out to other vaccine providers in the county who may have received a larger vaccine allocation. Officials suggested scheduling an appointment with Duke or UNC Health.

To leave contact information with the Chatham County Health Department, go to the vaccine information tool online or call the Infoline at 919-545-8323.

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