North Carolina Central University will be sending a freezer to the Halifax County Health Department capable of holding 56,000 vials of the COVID-19 vaccine at no charge to the county, health Director Bruce Robistow said this evening.

“Our Operations Department will make our facility ready to accommodate the freezer,” he said.

Robistow said he is hopeful the vaccine for the general public will be available by March. “We should see something for the hospital within the next week to 10 days.” 

A prioritization chart which is included in the photo gallery shows in what is called Phase 1A healthcare workers at high risk for exposure based on work duties or who are vital to the vaccination response would be the first priority.

The chart goes into specific detail on those employees.

Phase 1B addresses long-term care staff and residents; adults with high risk complications and host of other people including migrant farm workers, those incarcerated, homeless shelter residents, health care workers not included in Phase 1A, and frontline workers with two or more chronic conditions.

From there the chart goes into phases two through four and addresses those without two or more complications down to the general public.

Meanwhile today the health department added 25 new positive cases of COVID-19 to its data, bringing the total cumulative number of positives since March to 2,184.

Data on recoveries and current cases was not immediately available this evening, Robitsow confirmed.

There have been 38 related deaths with the following breakdown: 20 within the Roanoke Rapids area ZIP code; five within the Enfield area ZIP code; five within the Scotland Neck area ZIP code; three within the Weldon area ZIP code; two within the Halifax area ZIP code; two within the Littleton area ZIP code; and one within the Hollister area ZIP code. 

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The total number of positives by ZIP code since March 25 through today is as follows:

Enfield (27823) — 295 cases

Halifax (27839) — 89 cases

Hobgood (27843) — 59 cases

Hollister (27844) — 139 cases

Littleton (27850) — 136 cases

Roanoke Rapids (27870) — 1,149 cases

Scotland Neck (27874) — 203 cases

Tillery (27887) – The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services no longer provides data on the Tillery area ZIP code.

Weldon (27890) — 93 cases

Daily Lab Confirmed Cases

The graph shows a sustained increase in the trend and an increase since Tuesday.

Cases by Date of Earliest Illness Identification and Race/Ethnicity

Although there was a peak the week of November 21, the numbers for the past week have surpassed that mark.

Percent Positive of COVID-19 Cases

“We know that as testing increases, the number of cases can climb. This gives us an idea of the number of cases with respect to the amount of testing being done,” the health department said. These numbers are only calculated using results from labs that report to the state. 

The percent positive has remained the same over the past week, with a two-week average of 10.8 percent.

Cases by Date of Earliest Illness Identification and Age  

Ages 25-49 and 50-64 represent the largest age groups who have tested positive this past week.

This number peaked the week of July 4 and has decreased for the past week.