Too few people seeking shots at most Wake vaccination clinics

At Wendell Community Park, for example, only 65 of 1,680 available vaccination appointments – just 3 percent – have been booked this week.

Dr. David Weber, an infectious disease expert with UNC Health, said people's reluctance to get vaccinated could prevent North Carolina and the U.S. from reaching herd immunity, where so few people can spread coronavirus that the virus dies out. The state or nation needs a vaccination rate of about 85 percent for herd immunity, he said.

"I'm concerned about that, that we will continue to immunize people, the numbers will go up, but we won't reach the magical number of 80 to 85 percent," Weber said. "If we have enough people unwilling to take the vaccine, it actually means we'll never reach true levels of protection."

Locations, phone numbers to get your COVID shot in central NC

Ryan Jury, who oversees Wake County's vaccination efforts, says the open appointments don't reflect hesitancy to getting shots. Rather, he said, it's an access issue.

"Currently, we have the ability to administer 30,000 vaccines per week. What we are trying to do is to promote availability to access throughout the community by opening more sites," Jury said.

Vaccination clinics in Raleigh, for example, have 58 percent of their appointment booked this week, with all 840 slots at Departure Drive in north Raleigh filled. The drive-thru clinic outside PNC Arena has about two-thirds of its appointments scheduled, while the clinics at Wake County Commons Building and the Wake County Public Health Center, both in east Raleigh, are both around 40 percent booked.

"We continue to look at our program to ensure that we offer evening hours and weekend hours and that we have access across the county, so that there are vaccine locations ... throughout the county for those who are willing to or interested, that they have access," Jury said.

The county plans to open more vaccination sites in the coming weeks, with a goal of having five to 10 spread across the county.