Vaccines

Government agencies, schools and universities would no longer be able to require COVID-19 vaccines under a bill that passed an N.C. House committee Tuesday.

Cooper signed an executive order Monday terminating the emergency at the end of the day. He already announced last month it would end now because the state budget law contained health care provisions that would allow his administration to keep responding robustly to the virus.

NCDHHS officials say the two-dose Novavax vaccine will soon be available to North Carolinians over the age of 18 who have not yet been vaccinated.

Bavarian Nordic will deliver 2.5 million doses of its vaccine beginning later this year, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

In a statement, Gov. Cooper said he’s feeling fine, though he’s been experiencing mild symptoms. The 65-year-old is vaccinated and has received two booster shots.

COVID-19 surges — and mask mandates — have waned in the state. Now businesses and experts weigh how to balance health, wellbeing, and economics in this upcoming phase.

Researchers have been studying how the coronavirus could become endemic. That means the virus would not be eradicated, but would be rarer and less deadly, and the spread of COVID-19 would drop to a manageable rate.

On Tuesday, Governor Roy Cooper announced an extension of Executive Order 224, which mandates state employees in cabinet agencies to be fully vaccinated or submit to weekly testing for COVID-19.

Hospitalizations for COVID-19 are continuing to rise in North Carolina.

Gov. Roy Cooper is expected to give an update on the COVID-19 pandemic in North Carolina this afternoon.