The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services is updating its visitation guidance for long-term care facilities to allow for in-person, indoor or outdoor, visitation in most circumstances. The change aligns with new guidance released this week from the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and reflects rapidly improving trends in long-term care facilities.
Topics Related to COVID-19
North Carolina Food and Nutrition Services participants can purchase groceries online using their Electronic Benefit Transfer cards at an additional authorized online EBT retailer, BJ's Wholesale Club. This flexibility will allow participants to buy food while promoting social distancing to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and will help families with transportation and mobility barriers.
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services has expanded its vaccine data dashboard to provide more demographic data on people who are partially or fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Users will be able to see vaccinations by race, ethnicity, gender and age group by county, by week and since vaccinations began. The information will be displayed on a new tab named “Demographics' on the dashboard.
North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Mandy K. Cohen, M.D., and Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II received the single-dose Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine today at the Wake County Health Department's vaccination clinic at PNC Arena.
Governor Roy Cooper today announced the establishment of a COVID-19 vaccination center in North Carolina, in partnership with the federal government.
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services today updated the COVID-19 County Alert System, which shows six red counties — a decrease from 27 red counties on the previous Feb. 22 County Alert System and the fewest red counties in the state since the start of the County Alert System.
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services will be expanding access to COVID-19 rapid testing in K-12 public schools to protect students, teachers and staff from COVID-19. When schools implement testing combined with the state's strong mitigation strategies, they can detect new cases to prevent outbreaks and reduce the risk of further transmission.
New COVID-19 cases in North Carolina long-term care facilities have declined rapidly in the last several weeks. Case rates are down over 15-fold in skilled nursing facilities, adult care homes and other licensed facilities since the peak of transmission in January 2021. Given the rapid decline in new cases, most facilities currently meet criteria to resume indoor visitation while continuing to follow infection prevention recommendations.
K-12 schools are expected to open for in-person instruction for K-12 students following the StongSchoolsNC health guidance released today by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.
North Carolina has another tested, safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine to protect against virus-related hospitalization and death. The federal government authorized the distribution of Johnson & Johnson's (Janssen) one-shot vaccine and more than 80,000 doses are expected to arrive in the state this week, beginning on Wednesday.