By Alison Kuznitz, The Charlotte Observer
Securing a COVID-19 vaccine appointment can be daunting, even for the most tech-savvy living in the Charlotte area.
There’s no centralized wait list — and depending on where you live, whether you’re in a priority group, and which providers have vaccines, your access to appointments varies considerably in North Carolina.
The fractured process has forced people to juggle multiple healthcare portals and websites simultaneously while also pre-registering with Atrium Health and Novant Health systems, for example. To look for appointments outside of hospital and county-run clinics, people usually must create new accounts — plus sign up for email and text message alerts — for pharmacies like CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Publix and Harris Teeter.
Vaccine eligibility continues to widen in North Carolina, with Groups 1, 2, 3 and some in Group 4 qualifying for shots this month. In South Carolina, eligibility recently opened for anyone 55 or older, those with preexisting conditions who are at least 16 years old and people working front-line essential jobs like teachers and police officers.
Supply of the Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson shots remains extremely tight for now.
The Charlotte Journalism Collaborative is supported by the Local Media Project, an initiative launched by the Solutions Journalism Network with support from the Knight Foundation to strengthen and reinvigorate local media ecosystems.
