Source: Joel Burgess, ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES, 8/3/21

Buncombe County is set to become a state distribution hub, buying ultra-cold storage units and a vaccine unit vehicle while ramping up efforts to cut "barriers to accessing vaccine" and "increase vaccine confidence." The Buncombe County Board of Commissioners is expected to vote Aug. 3 to add $2.8 million in North Carolina Division of Public Health funds to the county health department's budget. It will go to COVID-19 testing, laboratory work and other ways to fight the pandemic. Of that, $665,477 will go to the new hub activities. Most of the money is being carried over from the county's unspent state funds.

For more of this story, click here.