Thousands call for appointments to get the COVID-19 vaccine in Burke County every day. Only 1,000 get it each week.
By Friday, the county was out of vaccine for the public, Burke County Health Department Director Rebecca McLeod said.
Supply of the COVID-19 vaccine has been limited across North Carolina. There are only so many appointments available, and itâs frustrating for health care providers and the public, McLeod said.
âWeâve had a mass vaccination plan in place for 15 to 20 years, which we exercise, but if you donât have the vaccine to give people, it doesnât work the way it should,â she said. âHas it made people lose trust in us and has it made people mad at us? Yes, and Iâm sorry.â
RALEIGH — As vaccinations begin to make an impact in Avery County through local health department rollout, statistics for COVID-19 on the local and state levels continue to concern health
Hospitals Face Staff Shortages as Coronavirus Hammers North Carolina
Staff shortages more of a danger than
Erin Holzhauer, medical director of the Samaritan’s Purse Covid-19 field hospital in Western North Carolina, has also worked as a nurse in a similar field hospital in the city of Cremona in northern Italy this last spring. The team there treated 281 patients from March 20 to May 8. (Photo courtesy of Samaritan’s Purse)
North Carolina’s hospitals are quickly filling up with patients stricken by the coronavirus, even as health systems in some of the hardest-hit regions the Triad and greater Charlotte area take steps to make room for a wave of new patients. The looming crisis is fueled by lack of clinical staff, not by a lack of physical space for beds.
WFAE
A hospital bed sits in one of the tarp-enclosed rooms at North Carolina s field hospital in Lenoir. Each room will also have a heart monitor and other medical equipment.
North Carolina’s hospitals are quickly filling up with patients stricken by the coronavirus, even as health systems in some of the hardest-hit regions the Triad and greater Charlotte area take steps to make room for a wave of new patients.
The looming crisis is fueled by lack of clinical staff, not by lack of physical space for beds.
Health care workforce shortages have been chronic and persistent in some areas of the state, particularly rural ones. But with virtually every hospital in the state drawing on a finite pool of available providers, more than 4,000 North Carolina hospital beds are either unstaffed or were not reported to the state, data from the Department of Health and Human Services shows. COVID-19 infections in health care workers have also compounded the shortage.