COVID-19 Vaccine Schedule

3.2.2021

Burke County Residents:

The Governor announced today that starting tomorrow, March 3rd, 2021 priority Group 3: Frontline Essential Workers will now be expanding to include in-person frontline essential workers and those who work in one of the eight essential sectors listed. This group is already open to Child Care/Pre-k through 12th grade teachers, staff, and personnel. Please call 828-358-4454 to schedule your appointment if you have not already done so. 

Please click the link below to read on the eight essential sectors to see if you are eligible to receive a vaccination in Group 3.

Deeper Dive-Group 3 Frontline Essential Workers

Starting on Thursday, March 24th, priority Group 4: High Risk Conditions and Increased Risk of Severe Illness to COVID-19 will be able to receive a vaccine. This group will also be encouraged to call 828-358-4454 to schedule their appointments.

To see what high risk conditions fall under this category, please click the link below. 

Deeper Dive-Group 4 High Risk Conditions 16-64 Years of Age

We thank you for your continued patience. 

As of January 19th

NEWS UPDATE: The vaccine registration process has changed to allow more convenient access and scheduled appointment times to get the COVD-19 vaccination. We have changed the phone system so that we will be able to handle the volume of calls.

If you are 65 years or older and wish to get the vaccine, please call the Community Vaccine Call Center to schedule an appointment at 828-358-4454. The call center will be open Monday through Wednesday 8am to 4:30pm to assist you with scheduling.

Carolinas HealthCare System Blue Ridge, Burke County Public Schools, Burke Emergency Management and Burke County Health Department are working in collaboration to get vaccines to our residents in the priority groups 1 and 2 based on the NC DHHS guidelines. This includes essential healthcare workers such as doctors, nurses, dentists, etc., and those in long term care/group homes, etc. This group also includes people who are 65 years old and older.

The community continues to receive very limited weekly vaccine allocations from the NC Department of Health and Human Services, and we are vaccinating our residents as those vaccines are received.

We would like to say again that our commitment is to administer the COVID-19 vaccine as quickly, efficiently, and fairly to all residents who wish to be vaccinated.

Since the first vaccine distribution in late December, Burke County has received 5,675 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine with the following distribution: 3,800 doses received by the hospital, 500 received by the health department and 1,375 received by Broughton and J. Iverson Riddle Developmental Center for their employees.

We have many residents who fall into groups 1 and 2. Burke County has 8,389 residents over 75 and 13,020 residents who are between 65-74.

Our team is preparing a vaccination plan based on weekly state allocations and will implement it as soon as adequate dosage allocation is received. In the meantime, we will be making decisions on a weekly basis as we receive dosage allocation numbers. We will not be able to accept walk-ins. Please make sure that you have an appointment.

Again, thank you for your continued patience.