RALEIGH — Less than half of North Carolinians eligible for a COVID-19 shot are fully vaccinated, even though there are more than 2.1 million doses waiting on shelves for residents to take.
President Joe Biden speaks at the Green Road Community Center in Raleigh on Thursday. Biden was in North Carolina to meet with frontline workers and volunteers and speak about the importance of getting vaccinated.
In the two weeks since the state announced four $1 million prizes would be given out to vaccinated adults, less than 118,000 residents — about 1% of the state population — have tried to get inoculated.
North Carolina ranks 12th-worst in the nation in vaccines administered per capita, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Those lagging numbers were the context under which President Joe Biden visited Raleigh on Thursday to urge North Carolinians to get a COVID-19 shot.
“Please, please get vaccinated,” he begged, noting he was “preaching to the choir” at the Green Road Community Center. “Folks, there is no reason to leave yourself vulnerable to the deadly virus for one single day more.”
Gov. Roy Cooper and Dr. Mandy Cohen, North Carolina’s Secretary of Health, are sounding the alarm that a more dangerous Delta variant is spreading and communities with high unvaccinated populations are most vulnerable. Their warning comes even as cases, hospitalizations and deaths continue to drop statewide.
Now, if only people will listen.
