North Carolina has reached another milestone in the massive effort to get people in the state vaccinated for COVID-19.
As of the last day of April, right at 50 percent of the people eligible for vaccination had been at least partially vaccinated.
In other words, half of those 16 years of age and older in the state had been administered at least one dose of the Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer or Moderna vaccines.
Just over 40 percent of adults in the state have been fully vaccinated, with either one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, or two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines.
Local and state health officials are finding that the group of unvaccinated North Carolinians is a whole lot harder to convince to get the shot than those who did so in the initial wave of the vaccination program.
Guilford County, like many local governments across the state, has started an ad campaign to encourage people to get vaccinated.
On Friday, April 30, North Carolina health officials sent out the latest state-related COVID-19 pandemic stats, which showed that over 49 percent of those eligible to get the vaccine had at least begun that process with a single shot.
In other positive news, the number of people tested who were found to have the coronavirus is now at 4.8 percent. Local, state and federal officials have stated that they want to see that number below 5 percent. In fact, they see that level almost as a magic barrier – and, when the number comes in at over 5 percent, stricter anti-virus measures are often put into effect.
Health officials also warn that it is by no means at given that the disease will just “go away” over time if precautions aren’t taken.
In North Carolina, on the last day of April, the number of people hospitalized due to COVID was 1,101. In recent weeks, that number has remained fairly steady, hovering around the 1,000 mark.
In real news, experts no longer think the US will ever reach herd immunity. And it isn’t because of the 50% that have gotten the vaccine.
I got the J&J vaccine at the FEM vaccination center at the mall on Saturday. The drivethrough process was almost empty. Most of the military (Air Force) people had nothing to do.
There is zero% chance I have the virus. Since apparently my temperature was not elevated, I was not tested for the virus or even offered a test.
Making the 5% magic number when you only test people who have symptoms is a strange metric.
That’s the standard we started with. Testing ramped up making it much more available and theoretically reducing the likelihood of positive cases by testing a symptomatic individuals. They never adjusted the 5% number. This is a fairly accepted standard but certainly isn’t the only measure to understand how a disease is spreading, infecting, and affecting people. That’s why the report number of tests, deaths, hospitalizations, moving averages, etc.
There is no “magic number” just a litmus test.