NC teachers eligible for vaccinations in 2 weeks - WRAL.com

COVID-19 vaccine registration opens in Wake County for teachers and school staff.

COVID-19 vaccine registration opens in Wake County for teachers and school staff.

— On Monday, teachers and school employees in Group 3A of North Carolina's vaccine rollout can register to get a vaccine in Wake County

Group 1: Heath care workers and long-term care staff and residents

Group 3a: Educators – teachers, support staff, child care workers

Group 3b: Frontline "essential" workers -- first responders (firefighters, police), food and agriculture production, manufacturing, corrections workers, U.S

Postal Service workers, public transit workers and grocery workers

Each county will distribute vaccines to school and childcare workers differently, and vaccinations are expected to begin as early as Wednesday

Beginning Monday, people who want to register for a vaccine in Wake County can visit wakegov.com/vaccine to fill out an online request form or call the 24/7 vaccine hotline at 919-250-1515

Stacy Beard from Wake County said that number may contain duplicates from people who submitted their name numerous times -- or people who have already received a vaccine elsewhere

People in Groups 1 and 2 can continue registering on the Wake County website along with Group 3A

Wake County Public Health has been vaccinating approximately 2,000 people a day by appointment-only at its three mass vaccination sites -- PNC Arena, the Wake County Public Health Center and the Wake County Commons Building

Roy Cooper said that all K-12 school personnel and anyone who works in child care will be eligible for vaccinations beginning Feb

All other frontline "essential" workers, such as police officers, firefighters and grocery workers, will have to wait until March 10 to start getting vaccinated

Subdividing Group 3 in the state's vaccination priority list is necessary, the governor said, to balance the limited supply of vaccine with the large number of frontline workers in the state

North Carolina receives only 150,000 doses of vaccine each week from the federal government, and the state has about 240,000 public school personnel

But Cooper said putting teachers at the front of Group 3 was simply pragmatic

"There has been concern about all of these essential frontline workers in a big group, in Group 3, all of a sudden crashing into the system, that that would be problematic," he said

"Starting with a smaller number of Group 3 frontline essential workers helps providers streamline vaccine distribution."

Mandy Cohen said providers might go to schools or workplace to administer shots, or they could designate a specific day of the week when only educators or other frontline workers could receive vaccinations

Some counties have lengthy waiting lists of people in Group 1 or Group 2 still waiting for their shots – Wake County's list has more than 80,000 people, for example – so teachers and other frontline workers will have to wait their turn, she said