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Durham County Department of Public Health to Pause Vaccine Scheduling Due to Limited Supply

Post Date:01/28/2021 7:22 PM

**We will continue to add updates to this page as information changes***

Update, January 29, 2021 -- As of January 29, 2021, no COVID-19 vaccine first dose appointments currently scheduled for Monday, February 1 - Saturday, February 20 will be cancelled, but some may be moved to Southern School of Energy & Sustainability (also known as Southern High School). In order to help make this move possible, some people may be asked to move their appointment to an earlier date, and a very small number of individuals will be asked to move their appointment up to 5 days later. All appointments will be completed by February 20. We will also communicate with long-term care facilities. If you have a first-dose appointment scheduled during this time, please continue to check your email and phone in case your appointment will need to be moved. Please do not call the Health Department to ask about your appointment. We will notify you by February 10 if you will be affected! As of now, we know that all first-dose appointments scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, February 1 and 2 will be changed.

Original news release:

Durham, NC - January 28, 2021 -

Due to limited COVID-19 vaccine supply expected to arrive from the NC Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) to the Durham County Department of Public Health (DCoDPH), effective immediately, DCoDPH will temporarily close its vaccine appointment scheduling line and will not add new vaccination dates to its online booking site until a later date to be determined. This will affect scheduling for DCoDPH and Southern High School.

At this time, no currently scheduled vaccine appointments will be cancelled or postponed, though some appointments beginning Monday, February 1 will be moved from our Health Department location to the Southern High School location. Individuals whose appointments must be moved to Southern High School will be contacted by phone or email.

“We are very thankful that we do not have to cancel any currently standing appointments, but as Secretary Cohen explained to the public in her news conference earlier this week, the unfortunate reality is that demand is far outpacing supply,” said Health Director Rod Jenkins. “Durham County has a baseline allocation of 600 first doses for the next three weeks, and we are uncertain when our allocation will increase. It is best to halt scheduling until we are confident we will be able to fulfill additional appointments.”

Although DCoDPH expects to be able to honor appointments already scheduled, the public is encouraged to stay tuned to accurate sources of information and communications from our team, as vaccine supply is subject to change.

“We hope that by the end of February we will be able to reopen our scheduling process and see increased supply, but that is uncertain at this time. We will continue to provide more information as it is received,” said Jenkins.

Individuals in vaccination phases 1 and 2 may still sign up for the COVID-19 Vaccine Waitlist at tinyurl.com/DCoVaccineWaitlist in English or tinyurl.com/DCoListaVacunas in Spanish to receive a call if vaccine doses become available due to appointment cancellations or no-shows.

For additional information, continue to check our website at dcopublichealth.org/covid19vaccines, follow us on social media at @durhamhealthnc, and stay tuned to other sources of accurate information like the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services and the CDC. We also offer a free email subscription service to provide email updates three times per week. To subscribe, visit dcopublichealth.org/covid19emails.

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