CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Beginning Thursday, March 4 at 8:30 a.m., additional vaccine appointments will be available through Mecklenburg County Public Health (MCPH) for eligible individuals in groups one through three.
These new appointments will be held March 10 through March 31, 2021, the county announced Tuesday morning. The manufacturer of those vaccines could vary.
MAKE AN COVID-19 VACCINE APPOINTMENT IN MECKLENBURG COUNTY: Online or by phone at 980-314-9400 (Option 3 for English, Option 8 for Spanish)
"They're available on the 10th because we're booked through the 9th," said Gibbie Harris, Mecklenburg County Health Director.
The following frontline essential workers in Group 3 who are required to be on-site for work will be eligible to make appointments for dates beginning March 10:
- Critical manufacturing
- Education and childcare
- Essential goods
- Food and agriculture
- Government and community services
- Healthcare and public health
- Public safety
- Transportation
Tuesday, Gov. Roy Cooper announced North Carolina would move into Group 3 starting Wednesday, a week earlier than planned. Cooper said several vaccine providers across the state said they were ready and able to move forward with vaccine distribution.
The Mecklenburg County Health Department will stick to the original timeline because of constraints on supply and the number of appointments they are able to make available in the next week.
The state gave each vaccine provider the option to move forward at its own pace.
The health department will get 10,000 doses of the new single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine later this week. They'll split it with Novant and Atrium Health, with plans already in place to get as many of them in the arms of childcare and school workers, who became eligible last week.
"If we have vaccine that's not being used for that group we're going to use it for the rest of group 3, we're not going to let vaccine go to waste," Harris said.
Both hospital systems will allow anyone eligible to make an appointment, but appointments may not be immediately available.
"It's never going to be quite perfect in how the groups work and who's eligible," Dr. David Priest with Novant Health said. "It's just flood market with as much vaccine as possible, try to have a reasonable approach in moving through the groups, we're always going to be moving between groups and get as many people vaccinated as possible."
North Carolina will move into Group 4 on March 24, starting with people with underlying health conditions that make them more vulnerable to the virus.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine became the third coronavirus vaccine approved by the FDA over the weekend.
Like the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines currently in use, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine protects against virus-related hospitalization and death. There are possible temporary reactions, such as a sore arm, fever, headache, or feeling tired and achy for a day or two.
All of the COVID-19 vaccines currently authorized were built upon decades of previous work on similar vaccines.
It's worth noting, each state uses an independent plan with varying names for groups.
Half of all South Carolinians will become eligible for the vaccine starting next week when the state moves to Phase 1b. South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, alongside DHEC Director Dr. Edward Simmer, and Schools Superintendent Molly Spearman, made the announcement Tuesday.
Have a relative or friend in another state and want to know when they can get vaccinated? Visit NBC News' Plan Your Vaccine site to find out about each state's vaccine rollout plan.