First COVID-19 vaccine in Watauga County to be given Wednesday

Courtesy of Melissa Bracey, AppHealthCare

Jackie Park, Reporter
December 22, 2020

More than a year after the first discovery of the novel coronavirus, AppHealthCare will administer the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in Watauga County Wednesday morning to health care providers.

Melissa Bracey, director of communications and compliance for AppHealthCare, wrote in an email that the first doses of American biotechnology company Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Watauga County Tuesday.

AppHealthCare is receiving 1,000 initial doses of the vaccine, of which 600 doses will go to Watauga County, 300 to Ashe County and 100 to Alleghany County.

North Carolina, like other states, is now working through Phase 1a of its vaccine distribution, which includes frontline health care workers, according to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the number of people the first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines will inoculate. The error has been corrected.

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