All in Health

NCDHHS updates StrongSchoolsNC toolkit; Recommends students be excluded from school only when sick or test positive

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services today announced updates have been made to the StrongSchoolsNC Public Health Toolkit focusing on strategies that are most effective at this stage of the pandemic, like vaccines, boosters, testing and masking, and no longer recommending individual contact tracing in K-12 schools.

Governor Cooper Signs Executive Order Extending Health Care Help to Strengthen State’s Response to Omicron Variant

Today, Governor Roy Cooper signed Executive Order 245 to strengthen the state’s ongoing fight against COVID-19 with more health care workers and flexibility for care facilities, as well as easier access to vaccines, tests and treatments. The regulatory waivers in the Order are key to facilitating the state’s COVID-19 response at this critical juncture in the pandemic.

FDA authorizes first oral antiviral for treatment of COVID-19

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for Pfizer’s Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir tablets and ritonavir tablets, co-packaged for oral use) for the treatment of mild-to-moderate coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in adults and pediatric patients (12 years of age and older weighing at least 40 kilograms or about 88 pounds) with positive results of direct SARS-CoV-2 testing, and who are at high risk for progression to severe COVID-19, including hospitalization or death.

Financial incentives for COVID-19 vaccination are effective, finds evaluation of NC program by NCDHHS, NCCU and UNC-Chapel Hill

The $25 Summer Card pilot program operated by North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) was successful in encouraging COVID-19 vaccination, according to a published research letter by authors from NCDHHS, the Advanced Center for COVID-19 Related Disparities (ACCORD) at the Julius L. Chambers Biomedical Biotechnology Research Institute at North Carolina Central University (NCCU), and the Departments of Biostatistics and of Health Behavior at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-Chapel Hill).

NCDHHS expands demographic data on vaccine dashboard to help identify equity gaps

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services has expanded its vaccine data dashboard to provide more statewide demographic data for COVID-19 vaccinations. Users will be able to see vaccination rates by race for age groups and ethnicity for age group. The information will be displayed on a new tab named “Additional NC Demographic Data” on the dashboard.

Governor Cooper joins health care leaders to discuss pandemic’s impact on the Hispanic/Latinx community, signs executive order to extend Hispanic/Latino Advisory Council

Governor Roy Cooper held a roundtable discussion to hear from health care and community leaders about the impacts that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the Hispanic/Latinx communities and thank them for their dedication. The Governor also signed an Executive Order to extend the Governor’s Advisory Council on Hispanic/Latino Affairs.