Federal COVID Funding Running Out, New Surge Predicted

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — It’s the first spring in two years people can be mask free in Mecklenburg County. But what would it take for the county to require us to mask up again?

That’s the question WCCB’s Alexandra Elich asked County Health Director Dr. Raynard Washington.

It comes as experts are predicting an imminent surge of subvariant BA2 in a few weeks.

Washington says any mitigation measures are going to be largely driven by the severity of the impact that COVID is having on the community specifically emergency departments in hospitals.

“I don’t know that those measures would be in the form of a mask mandate,” Washington says. “I think there are a number of ways to obviously encourage individuals in our community to take the appropriate steps to protect themselves.”

He says roughly six percent of case sequences in the county are the BA2 variant which is an increase from what officials previously saw.

Federal COVID funding ran out earlier last week.

The health department has access to at-home tests and vaccines at no cost regardless of insurance status. It’s enough to last a few years.

Dr. Washington has been in touch with the state and hopes the federal government will step up.

Dr. Arin Piramzadian with StarMed healthcare is not as optimistic.

“These antiviral pills are unfortunately pretty expensive. These monoclonal infusions are pretty expensive,” Piramzadian says. “So people who are uninsured cannot get access to them we’re going to see a lot more people end up in the hospital, feeling at the hospital systems, getting severely ill, and unfortunately dying.”

The StarMed physician tells WCCB he expects many providers and other testing sites in out area to shut down.

He says StarMed will continue offering free PCR tests.