WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Limited coronavirus vaccine supplies are causing headaches for people trying to get appointments.
Cone Health and a handful of Triad counties will not get vaccine shipments at all this week.
Thousands who thought they had appointments through Cone Health are scrambling to book new ones. Some are finding out they will have to wait longer than they hoped for to get their first dose.
"It's just disappointment on top of disappointment," High Point resident Vickie Alston said.
"We're the age group that's dying," Summerfield resident Theresa Good said.
Alston and Good originally were scheduled to get their vaccines from Cone Health in February.
Prior to booking that appointment, Good made 191 phone calls in a day trying to get a vaccine for herself and her husband.
"My husband, in April, had lung surgery and had a third of his lung removed for cancer," Good said, "And our doctors told us, as soon as they came out with a vaccine he needed to because it would probably kill him if he got it."
Both are racing as fast as they can to get the vaccine.
"I'm just afraid to do anything. I don't really go anywhere," Alston said.
Theirs were among 10,400 vaccine appointments canceled by Cone Health when the health system learned it would not get vaccines from the state in the next shipment.
Now, they're back to making phone calls in the hopes of scheduling new appointments.
"I'm constantly reaching out. It's the luck of the draw," Good said.
Good and her husband are currently set up at a vaccination even in Concord. Alston is now scheduled with Novant Health.
They're not the only people seeking vaccines outside of their county.
"I know that we're vaccinating people outside of this county," Renae Caldwell said, "I've had people drive a good ways to get here to get their vaccine."
Novant Health said their appointments are open to everyone, not just people who are currently their patients.
Forsyth County said one in five people getting vaccines from the Forsyth County Department of Public Health are coming from other counties.
The Winston-Salem Fairgrounds opened as a vaccination site Sunday. County said about 700 people were vaccinated there on the first day and approximately 1100 people were vaccinated at the fairgrounds Monday.
Good and Alston are still continuing to search for vaccinations because their current appointments are not until March and April.
Both remain on Cone Health's waiting list hoping earlier dates will open up.
Caldwell said she expects demand to remain high.
"Based on what community members are telling us once they get here, they will get a vaccine wherever they can," Caldwell said.