Smithfield hospital overwhelmed, but few in Johnston County seeking booster shots

Only nine people have gotten a coronavirus vaccine booster shot at the Johnston County Public Health office since Tuesday, officials said.

The county is among the first in central North Carolina to offer the added dose of vaccine to people with weakened immune systems, following recent approval by federal regulators.

Meanwhile, nearby Johnston Health is flooded with COVID-19 patients, and doctors and nurses there were urging more people to roll up their sleeves to help curb the virus.

"The hospital is full. There’s a patient in, essentially, every bed," Johnston Health Chief Medical Officer Dr. Rodney McCaskill said Wednesday.

About one-third of the people in the hospital have COVID-19, McCaskill said, and more than 90 percent of those patients are unvaccinated.

"They tend to be younger, they tend to be sicker, and they tend to stay in the hospital longer," he said.

"Right now, we’re seeing the sickest of the sick," said Beth Jordan, emergency services coordinator for the hospital.

"We’ve had more people to die of COVID that are unvaccinated," said Leah Garner, director of emergency services. "I encourage everyone to get vaccinated to help stop this so our lives can get back to normal – even if it means a third [shot]."

Health care workers will be among the first eligible for booster shoots when they become available to the general public in mid-September. Federal officials have called for the extra dose eight months after full vaccination.

"You need the booster to keep yourself healthy, to ward off the pandemic," Jordan said.

"I think it will be very important in helping to slow the spread and get us back to where we’re healthy again," Garner said. "We don’t know what’s up coming next. We don’t know how to prepare. We don’t know how our lives are going to change because of COVID."

The county health department is giving vaccine shots Monday through Friday in Smithfield and is also holding daily outreach clinics for all three doses. The next one is 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday at Selma Middle School.

County officials asked that people getting a booster shot bring their vaccine cards to make sure they get the same vaccine they previously received.

Wake County Public Health and the Duke University Health System are also offering third doses to people with weakened immune systems.