After a slow start, North Carolina is ramping up its COVID-19 vaccinations. Some 9.2% of residents got the first shot of COVID-19 vaccines by Monday, Feb. 8, when 970,162 people had received a first dose, according to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. Two days earlier, an average 8.6% of COVID-19 tests came back positive.
Most North Carolina small businesses remain open but have seen revenues decline in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to results from a new survey of North Carolina small businesses released today by the Department of Commerce.
The year of 2020 will leave little for Brant and Karen Barnes. Their income vanished when the governor shut down North Carolina in March. Barnes suffered a heart attack in June. A tree toppled across their house in July, and their pottery studio burned down. The latest blow was losing the Western North Carolina Pottery Festival.
bout 25% of gyms in the U.S. will close by year’s end, a new study shows. The global pandemic is the biggest disruption the fitness industry has ever faced, writes Nick Rizzo of RunRepeat, which specializes in shoes for athletes and studies the fitness industry.
Lawmakers are fighting to help small businesses afford health insurance, but they’re running out of time. As the pandemic and the shutdowns wreck the economy, thousands of North Carolinians continue to lose their insurance. North Carolina has nearly 1.2 million uninsured residents.
Despite the current spike in COVID-19 infections and deaths, there is good news on the not-so-distant horizon. Three effective vaccines are in the pipeline. Some North Carolinians — those battling coronavirus on the frontlines as well as those put at greatest risk by infection — will being vaccinated in the coming weeks.
