>> Good afternoon.

I'm Mandy Cohen, I'm secretary of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services and I'm joined today by our American sign language interpreters lee williamson and Nicole FOX.

Jackie and jasmine metivier or Spanish language interpreters and in a moment I will introduce our next round of winners for the your shot at a million and some are cash for college drawing.

I hope they will inspire more North Carolinians to get vaccinated.

As of today 59% of North Carolinians 18 and older have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

This number now includes vaccine information from federal providers including the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, us Department of Defense federal Bureau of Pierrot prisons and the Indian Health service.

Now what we've made good progress too many unvaccinated North Carolinians are unnecessarily getting sick being hospitalized and dying.

We had a 1000 new cases a day reported yesterday and today.

That's more than 3 times the number of cases we're seeing just 2 weeks ago when we had about 300 cases a day.

For the first time since early May the percent of tests that are positives in more than 5%.

And for the past 2 weeks hospitalizations have been increasing.

We continue to see that more than 99% of the new covid cases or in people who are not fully vaccinated.

These numbers are well below where we were at the height of the pandemic but they're still really concerning and they are preventable with a COVID-19 vaccine.

So don't wait to vaccinate.

One way we're supporting more vaccination is through that your shot at a million and cash for college summer drawings.

2 weeks ago, we announced our first winners and today, I'm excited to announce our second round of winners.

Remember that we still have 2 more 1 million dollar drawings for North Carolinians 18 and older and 2 more cash for college drawings for North Carolinians ages, 12 to 17 and there's still time to get vaccinated and be entered into our final 2 drawings.

And even if you don't win cash or scholarship.

You'll still be winning by protecting yourselves and your loved ones against this deadly virus.

So our second your shot at a million winner is Natalie Everett.

Natalie is from pine Hill, North Carolina and Natalie want to come join me over here.

So we wanted to ask you first congratulations and excited so were you excited to learn that you won a million dollars after receiving your COVID-19 vaccine.

>> Yes, beyond excited.

Beyond excited grateful.

And just very overwhelming.

>> Well congratulations for that we're so glad to have you here that you've got vaccinated and thank you for protecting yourself and others and congratulations to you your friends and your family.

I hope North Carolinians will follow your example, vaccines are the best protection from COVID-19 related hospitalizations and deaths as well as complications from this virus.

You know now we know that even people who had a mild case of COVID-19 may struggle with long-term effects like shortness of breath, chest pain and brain fog.

And with more contagious a more contagious Delta variant spreading North Carolinians should not wait to get vaccinated rigorous clinical trials among thousands of people ages, 12 and older have proven that vaccines are safe and effective and more than 160 million Americans have now been safely vaccinated getting a vaccine is the best way to protect you your family and your community from COVID-19 and that's exactly what our cash for college winner dead.

Her name is Jessica Kleiman and climate skews me and she is from Greensboro and she said she was inspired by her parents to get vaccinated and I know she's going to inspire other young people just as her parents inspired her so Jessica congratulations.

So I understand that you're going to be using your scholarship towards going to school see can become a physical therapist says that right yes.

Well tell us how you felt when you heard about winning this scholarship.

My reaction was.

When that when they come from the state until my parents.

>> Then my whole family was happy started jumping screaming a couple days later, they still can't believe it yeah it's pretty remarkable.

What we're so excited that you and your mom and your sister are all here and we're super excited.

>> For you to use a scholarship to become a physical therapist that's great we wish you the best of luck and thank you for getting vaccinated and thank you for making sure you're going to share your voice with other teenagers to make sure they get vaccinated as soon as they can so great job and congratulations mom and they haven't think you.

>> She's adorable.

So you can see off for those you can see off screen.

Jessica's sister is amazing and very excited to be on stage so she can't get her vaccine yet because remember this vaccine is only for those who are 12 and older, but we're excited that once we have a vaccine that's available for everyone we know that everyone in the family is going to get vaccinated so thanks.

And everyone.

So if you've already received your vaccine that's great.

Thank you so much what I need you to do now is talk to your friends and family about why you chose to get vaccinated and share your experience don't wait to get vaccinated so go to my spot that NC .gov and find your vaccine location near you and with that now that you've met are 2 winners and heard a bit of an update of where we are with our trends we're going to take a few questions from some reporters in the room and then we can move on to anyone on the phone.

So if anyone has questions they can go to the Mike here and if there are.

If there are no questions we can move to the phone.

>> Hi doctor Khan mackenzie stasko with CBS 17 just wondering with the Delta variant and the cases arising how will this impact.

How this impact.

The state's plan for mask guidance with the school and just the state's guidance in general knowing that cases are rising yet again.

Well, thanks Lyn.

The Lindsay for the question you know I am concerned that we are seeing the Delta variant.

>> Here in North Carolina, it's the dominant form of covid now in our state and what I could say it's more contagious.

It is stronger and it's showing up in our numbers are cases are way up as I said just 2 weeks ago, we're averaging about 300 cases a day today we had a 1000 cases and when I can say is 99% of those cases are in folks that are on vaccinated it's why we're here to remind folks that you really need to get vaccinated as soon as possible.

Because we know that the CDC continues to recommend that those that are unvaccinated wear a mask right because we know the unvaccinated are still at risk.

Now 8 those that are above the age of 12 you can go get a vaccine today which is great news, but we know for our kids who are under the age of 12.

They're going to remain unvaccinated they're not yet eligible for a vaccine and that is why we're going to continue to recommend that those who are unvaccinated particularly our kids are going to still wear wear mask, we are looking at the CDC guidance on that came out last week on schools and so our team is trying to align our guidance with that and so we hope to have more next week on that.

>> Just a quick follow up and follow up question I wanted to know how bad you think that this Delta variant could get in North Carolina are there any sort of projections that you're looking at were perhaps any lessons from the past 16 to 18 months that we could use to kind of control this year.

Yeah absolutely so North Carolina as well as the rest of the country in the world we've learned a lot of lessons over the last hard 18 months, couple of things that we know vaccines work.

>> Right and in this particular circumstance.

The vaccines protect you against that Delta variant.

So we are really encouraging everyone to get vaccinated as quickly as possible.

But we've also learned that there are other ways to prevent this virus from spreading and that is again wearing masks and what that's why we're going to continue to encourage those who are unvaccinated to wear mask, particularly indoors.

We know this virus spreads more when you are indoors in a closed setting near someone for a longer period of time.

So that's why we hope those who are unvaccinated will continue to wear a mask to protect themselves and each other as we go forward last question the cases that are rising and hospitalizations.

>> Are those mostly younger people the people who are really getting vaccinated or can you give us any sort of context for that sure well I would say most of the cases that we're seeing 99% of them are in folks who are on vaccinated and when you look at who is unvaccinated in North Carolina, it is a younger population, we see more than 85% of people over the age of 65 are vaccinated so just make sense by the numbers.

>> That they are less likely to be our cases now which is great news because we knew those over 65 are at higher risk so what we are seeing now are more cases in a a younger cohort but unfortunately we're still seeing increases in hospitalization and so what we're seeing is people in their 20's 30's and 40's going into the hospital with covid we just want to remind folks this is still a serious disease.

It is with us and unfortunately even in younger people it can cause pretty serious illness.

So we're going to keep at it encouraging vaccines encouraging mass for those who are unvaccinated on we're not we're not done with this yet.

I think that's all for the questions here in the room do we have any questions on the phone.

>> Our first question is from Ben Sessoms with the news and observer.

>> Thanks for taking my questions to Terri Cullen North Carolina topped 1000 new daily cases today for the first time since May and we tweak vaccination numbers are continuing to go down.

Are you concerned that the lottery hasn't been as effective as you would be to increase vaccination.

>> Well thanks Ben, you know we are throwing everything we've got at this vaccination effort and we knew from looking at other states that using tools like the lottery or an opportunity for scholarship did make an impact in other states.

So we certainly wanted to use every tool at our disposal here but we know it's not just that right there are many reasons why folks are not getting vaccinated I think some of it is that folks need to make sure they have access to a vaccine that it is close to them and we're making sure that they know that there are hundreds of places you can get vaccinated today, you don't need to have an appointment.

I think there are others who have questions still about the vaccine.

We want to make sure those folks know it is safe and effective and free.

So we want also folks to get really good information so make sure that you are getting good information about the vaccine whether it's from our department where the Centers for Disease Control or another reputable medical source about this vaccine.

So we're going to continue to focus on many ways to reach books.

We also want to make sure that people are who are vaccinated or talking to others about their experience we found that that really helps people make decisions about whether or not to get vaccinated so if you've been vaccinated out there I'm asking for your help please talk to your friends and family about why you got vaccinated and convince others to get get vaccinated as quickly as they can.

>> We have a follow-up question from Mister Sessoms.

>> Just one quick follow-up to take on to as many as 40% of adults are still unvaccinated North Carolina and on you talk you're talking previously about the Delta variant now it's spreading North Carolina.

You know all of the likelihood that we could see outbreaks like we did over the winter, you know if vaccination rates remain low the now what is your message to North Carolinians that still haven't been vaccinated.

>> Well I am concerned for our North Carolinians that have not been vaccinated this particularly with this stronger.

Delta variant of covid that is now predominant here in North Carolina.

I think folks really need to go out and get vaccinated as soon as possible we have already seen outbreaks across the state here.

I don't want to see anyone else gets sick and certainly not lose their life to covid particularly when we have this powerful tool to prevent it.

So please please please go out and get vaccinated.

>> We have one final question from Brian Anderson.

I I have 2 questions for you to forgive me for that.

I I just wanted to ask.

A hypothetical question.

For you doctor Cohen.

If you are as a vaccinated person and you're going to a place where he's certain large.

We'll say you're in bladen County or hope County as a vaccinated individual would you feel safe going to the county and being unmasked or would you prefer to wear a mask.

>> Brian thanks for that question what we have seen from the data is that the vaccines that are available right now are protective against covid and its variants so I do feel comfortable and protected, however, there are lots of folks with different reasons to want to wear a mask and I encourage anyone nothing wrong with wearing a mask for some extra protection, even if you are vaccinated so again there there might maybe folks with more chronic diseases or older or.

Their immune system is weak or for whatever reason and they want to give themselves some extra protection absolutely nothing wrong with that.

I feel protected with the vaccine.

I got remember I got the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, the one and done.

Vaccine.

I do feel protected from covid but this is where we all need to work together.

The more people in North Carolina that get vaccinated it protects each other right the less virus we have circulating here.

It means we protected each other here in North Carolina, it gives this virus less of a chance to change or get even stronger.

So we have work to do and I hope that everyone is going to get vaccinated as soon as they can.

>> And I believe Brian has a follow-up question.

Yeah, thanks thanks for that.

One concern I've heard from unvaccinated people is they don't trust the vaccine because they're only authorized for emergency use.

And the fact that is only approved for emergency use is also making some employers feel unable to mandate their workers to get vaccinated are you pushing either publicly or behind the scenes from.

>> The ministry.

But again day that seems full approval.

>> Sorry Brian we lost you for a bit of that but what I I would say is we've seen a 160 million American safely be vaccinated and we want to see many many more and while this was authorized for emergency use it still had to go through the rigor of clinical trials review of evidence and now we continue to look at safety day to day over day over day.

And what we're seeing is right.

We know that this is safe and effective vaccines that are out there on I'm know that Pfizer has already put through their paperwork with the FDA for full approval, so I'm hopeful that the FDA is working as rapidly as possible.

To get to full approval for the vaccine.

And again, but that's not slowing down our effort we're going to still make sure that everyone gets vaccinated as soon as possible.

And it is my hope that the FDA continue looks at at the data for the millions and millions of Americans that have now gotten safely vaccinated and we'll move to tougher full approval as quickly as they can.

All right I think that was our last question.

I'm grateful, thank you to Natalie and to Jessica and her their families for being here.

Excited to announce these debt 2 new winners remember we still have 2 more drawings coming up in the in the coming weeks get vaccinated but because it protects you and your family, but if you needed one more reason maybe you will win a million dollars okay don't wait to vaccinate thanks everyone.