COVID programs wind down as federal funding runs out, local health departments could feel strain

WRAL News talked with North Carolina Secretary of Health and Human Services Kody Kinsley about these changes.

The federal funding that the state used to pay outside vendors to run a lot of these programs is coming to an end this year. The department has already started to wind down free vaccine events.

And testing run by those vendors will likely end by the end of March, if not sooner.

The days of drive-thru COVID vaccine clinics and traffic jams for testing are winding down.

A more recent scene has a table to check-in patients for vaccine appointments at a health department.

"We’re not serving thousands every day, but we are seeing about 30 plus people a day here on average," said Johnston County Public Health Education Supervisor Kimetha Fulwood.

Johnston County Public Health is now only open for walk-in COVID vaccinations one day a week.

Other days, it's by appointment only. Pandemic surge staffing is down to four nurses here, and they're done at the end of February.

There was a time that we had 12, 13 nurses here," Fulwood said. "And as the needs dropped those nurses returned to more permanent assignments."

Changes like this are coming to communities across the state as federal funding that paid contractors to run no-cost COVID testing and vaccine events runs out.

"For most North Carolinians, they’ll be accessing COVID resources as they would for any other disease," Kinsley said. "They’re going to go to their doctor. They’re going to go to their pharmacy for testing and treatment."

Kinsley said the winding down of these programs will put a strain on local health departments, especially since the state has not expanded Medicaid.

"What it’s going to mean for over a million people in North Carolina who don’t have health insurance is it’s going to get tougher and tougher," Kinsley said.

Secretary Kinsley said this is part of a shift in the pandemic to getting back to normal.

Wake County says it is still using American Rescue Plan funding to support its COVID response.