Local health director and politicians sound alarm on getting vaccine

GREENVILLE, N.C. (WITN) - As COVID-19 cases continue to slowly climb, health officials and politicians nationwide sound the alarm on getting the vaccine.

Vidant Medical Center is seeing an increase too, saying they’ve seen case numbers creep higher over the past couple weeks, with 41 inpatients Friday across the system and over 90% of them not vaccinated.

In Halifax county, Health Director Bruce Robistow says they’ve gone from just a few positive cases a week to the last two weeks with 19 cases each week.

Robistow said Halifax County did a great job getting people vaccinated over the summer but that number has plateaued.

He said only 39% of the county is vaccinated, but it’s hovered around 39% for some weeks now, without growing.

Politicians nationwide are also urging people to get the vaccine.

The Republican Governor of Alabama expressed her frustration with their states low vaccination rate saying, “it’s time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks not the regular folks. It’s the unvaccinated folks who are letting us down.”

The White House says they are going to continue to advocate and work with local officials to get the word out.

Health officials say if you haven’t gotten your vaccine, they strongly suggest wearing a mask when inside public areas.

Halifax County said their positivity rate for COVID-19 cases is 2.7% which is significantly lower than the states 6.7% positivity rate.

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