North Carolina Vaccination rates continue to increase. New cases of COVID and hospitalizations were slightly increased but fairly stable this past week in North Carolina and in the United States. This is believed to be due to more people starting to travel and relaxation of previous policies like mask mandates. Concern is also present about vaccine variants which may be more contagious , not be covered by vaccines or cause more severe illness. Continue to take the precautions to prevent COVID infections including masking, physical distancing and frequent hand washing. All persons 16 years and older are now eligible
for vaccination in North Carolina.

CDC guidelines explaining what activities may now be safe were issued a few weeks ago with a travel advisory update for
fully vaccinated persons issued April 2. This and other guidelines can be found at https://tinyurl.com/8f3f7dh. The relaxed
guidelines especially apply to small (family) gatherings of fully vaccinated people interacting with non vaccinated persons of
low risk (eg. grandparents and grandchildren). The more relaxed guidelines don’t yet apply to medium or large group gatherings.
Persons, vaccinated or not are still encouraged to wear masks, physically distance and wash hands frequently when
in public places or in medium/ large groups of people. Symptomatic (cough , fever, shortness of breath) persons still need
to be tested and treated regardless of vaccination status. Also persons in higher risk categories should be mindful that just
because they are vaccinated does not mean they can have unmasked visits with individuals at higher risk for having the
virus.

As of April 12 Cone Health announced that they will continue to vaccinate 16-18 year olds and up at their vaccination sites
and as of today they have vaccine appointments available for April 15, 16 and 17. They have Moderna and Pzifer vaccines
depending on what site you sign up for. The Cone Health website is https://tinyurl.com/dmhfc8zk The Cone vaccine information
site also has links to other county sites and allows persons to sign up for vaccine updates. Cone does not want their
patients to call their individual provider offices for vaccination appointments, however some other health organizations like
Wake Forest Baptist Health and Novant are allowing sign ups/information for their patients through their on-line patient
charts.

Guilford County sign up may be done at www.healthyguilford.co (Email address required) or by phone 336-641-7944,
option 2. Phone appointments must be made 8 a.m.- 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. They also have only Pfizer and Moderna
vaccines and a person may choose which vaccine they sign up for. The vaccination sites still include Mount Zion Baptist
Church, High Point Community University Center and Greensboro Coliseum. People can subscribe to updates about vaccine
availability and appointment openings from the Guilford Health Department by texting GC19 (or GC19S for Spanish) to
888777.
The FEMA site is also delivering vaccinations. They are scheduling appointments for April 21-27 however are supplying
only Johnson and Johnson vaccines. There were concerns about this vaccine noted in the news recently so I suspect they
will pause the use of this vaccine for a short while while this is investigated. This mass vaccine site is at Four Seasons Town
Centre , where appointments can be made at https://www.guilfordcountync.gov/how-do-i/gso-mass-vax or1-888-675-4567. This vaccine signup can also be reached through the Cone Health site. They have indoor or drive up options at this site. No walk in appointments are allowed at any of the sites mentioned and all persons have to be in the groups which are currently being vaccinated to qualify.

Another resource is https://vaccinefinder.org which tracks what pharmacies have available vaccine and of what type within
10 ( or other # of miles) of your zip code. A quick check of this resource today shows vaccine is at some of the pharmacies
close to my house in Greensboro this week. Walgreens will let you sign up for a vaccine at https://www.walgreens.com/
after setting up an account with them. Other pharmacies have similar sign up opportunities.

The NC site which helps persons find a vaccination site is https://myspot.nc.gov/. This site will also show you where vaccines
are available close to your zip code. NC has said all groups are now eligible for vaccine.

Friends are reminded that the Affordable Health Care Marketplace is open until May 15 2021 to allow persons who have
lost their health care coverage during the pandemic to sign up. Research that option at: https://www.healthcare.gov/