Vaccine rollout continues across Southeastern North Carolina
Latest update on vaccine roll-out across the Cape Fear region By Emily Featherston | December 29, 2020 at 6:11 PM EST - Updated December 29 at 7:26 PM
WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) - As the third week of North Carolina’s distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine continues, hospitals and health departments are making their way through the list of eligible healthcare workers as pharmacy chains begin getting doses into long-term care facilities.
Statewide, more than 63,500 vaccines have gone into the arms of front-line workers a figure provided by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services as of 8 p.m. Dec. 28.
WILMINGTON Adriana Avila Ramirez, 39, passed away Sunday, Dec. 27, 2020, at New Hanover Regional Medical Center.
She is the survived by her parents, Francisco Javier Avila and Emma Ramirez; husband, Manuel Ramirez; daughter, Cassandra; brother, Alejandro Avila Ramirez, and his wife, Teresa; nephews, Emiliano and Jeramiah; sister-in-law, Veronica; and brother-in-law, Jose Trinidad.
Adriana loved to craft and try many different things. She also admired any type of flower and the beauty and joy they brought. The love of her family brought her great joy, and she will be forever missed.
Visitation will be held from 5 to 7 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 2, 2021, at Wilmington Funeral Chapel with funeral services beginning at 2 p.m., Sunday, Jan. 3, at Wilmington Funeral Chapel.
Among the issues that have frequented headlines and been the topic of public conversation and debate in 2020, the sale of New Hanover Regional Medical Center sits high on the list.
When a divided New Hanover County Board of Commissioners voted to pursue the possible sale of the largest employer in the county in September 2019, officials and citizens had questions about what the sale would mean for the future of the hospital and the area.
Since then critics of the sale, like Save Our Hospital Inc., have said the process was rushed, lacked transparency and feared a sale could not only lower the quality of care and increase costs, but put taxpayer money in the hands of groups not from the county.
in the orange zone, signaling “substantial” levels of community spread, according to the statewide Covid-19
County Alert System. Meanwhile, Pender County moved from orange to the “critical” red zone due to its alarming high case and percent positivity rates.
However, the impact on the hospitals in all three counties is considered low, according to the report. The alert system considers a variety of factors at hospitals, from staffing shortages to the number of emergency room visits, as well as the counties’ number of new cases and the percent positivity rates when making designations.
As Covid-19 numbers have picked up in the midst of colder months and increasingly common gatherings over the holidays, just eight of North Carolina’s 100 counties remain in the yellow zone, the lowest level of spread in the three-tier reporting system.
Prices up
Web Bostic, who works for local janitorial supply company, Croaker, in Castle Hayne, continues to witness the supply-and-demand chain wax and wane, from March and April’s panic-buying spree to leveling out in the fall. Though hand sanitizer and toilet paper seem to be back in the green, gloves and disinfectant wipes are a different story. Name brands like Lysol and Clorox continue to be sought after and in short supply, as are latex, nitrile and vinyl gloves which are widely used in healthcare and food industries.
“Disposable glove prices have gone up 300% and are on allocation from the manufacturer,” Bostic relayed. “To help with the shortage, a newer type of hybrid vinyl glove has been produced by the manufacturers.”