DAVIDSON COUNTY, N.C. — Several counties in the Triad are preparing to begin Phase 1b of vaccinations later this week and officials said demand is already high.
It's not hotels or sporting events booking up within minutes as the pandemic continues, instead, it's vaccine clinic appointments in Davidson County.
The county's Department of Public Health booked all 1,100 of its first Phase 1b appointments within 40 minutes Monday.
"We really experienced a complete overload on our system, individuals were frustrated and trying to get in to get appointments," Lillian Koontz said, "There are a lot of members of our community who desperately want the vaccine and we are working incredibly hard to get that to them."
Koontz is the Davidson County Public Health Director and said Group One of Phase 1b under the state's vaccination plan will start being vaccinated Thursday and Friday at their clinics.
The first group of that phase is open to anyone age 75 or older regardless of health status.
Koontz said the move to the next phase comes after the county vaccinated about 960 people under Phase 1a since December 22.
"Those appointments started to sort of trickle so we realized we were ready for Phase 1b with the supply that we had," Koontz said.
Other Triad counties are taking similar steps.
Forsyth County will move to Phase 1b on Wednesday and Public Health Director Joshua Swift said they're seeing similar excitement.
"We have seen a huge demand, a huge call volume and we're asking everyone to be patient," Swift said.
Randolph County will start scheduling Phase 1b Group One appointments Tuesday and the first appointments are scheduled for January 11.
Anyone who is eligible under Phase 1b Group One to get their vaccine can call 336-318-6223 to schedule an appointment.
However, not everyone is moving at the same pace.
The Rockingham County Health Department said they plan to begin Phase 1b in the coming weeks but they do not have a day for when the move will happen.
The Guilford County Department of Public Health said they are still continuing with Phase 1a and hope to move to the next phase soon.
"Unfortunately we're all on very different timelines which is very confusing," Koontz said.
Each county need permission from the state to begin the next phase but Swift said each county controls when they start that move.
"They gave us basically a window of January 6 through January 11 to transition into Phase 1b Group One and we decided it would be best if we went earlier," Swift said.
Swift said all North Carolina counties were given that same window to begin the transition.
Koontz said the decision to move forward considers how many vaccines a county has left and who wants them. Since Davidson County saw Phase 1a appointments slowing down, they decided to move forward.
She said that consideration will continue as they move forward.
"We will not move to Phase 1b Group Two until we almost have know individuals requesting appointments," Koontz said.
Anyone interested in scheduling a vaccine appointment with the Forsyth County Department of Public Health can call 336-703-2081.
Koontz said no walk ins will be permitted at Davidson County's first clinics on Thursday and Friday. Appointment times for next week will be announced on social media later this week.