RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina declined to accept any additional COVID-19 vaccines this week, for the first time since the shots were first available in December 2020.
Vaccine providers are instead fulfilling orders through transfers or requests to local health departments.
The move to refuse the state’s entire weekly allocation from the federal government comes as demand for the vaccines drops.
North Carolina has already returned over 1.2 million doses to the federal pool and refused to accept 2.4 million shots.
The state now has a surplus of nearly 2.4 million COVID-19 vaccines waiting for residents to take.
Feature photo by Sandhills Sentinel Photographer Melissa Schaub.
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