Gov. Cooper wants eastern NC to get vaccinated, more access to broadband
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper visited Kinston on Tuesday looking to address two of the biggest challenges facing eastern North Carolina during the pandemic.
WRAL News spoke with the governor about the future of broadband access in the region, and the effort to get more shots in arms there.
“One of the good things we’ve seen in this pandemic is that it is shining a spotlight on challenges we know are already there,” Gov. Cooper said.
The governor’s first stop on Tuesday afternoon was the Kinston-Lenoir Public Library, where local leaders gave an update on efforts to expand broadband access in the region.
Some of the highlighted projects included 10 public hotspots that have been set up across Jones County, and a partnership with Neuse Regional Libraries and the Jones County School District providing drive-up Wi-fi for students.
Gov. Cooper said with 1.2 million North Carolinians currently without reliable broadband access, he was looking to go further.
“We know in rural eastern North Carolina we need to lay the fiber, we need to provide the opportunity to create the infrastructure so we can have it,” Gov. Cooper said.
The governor’s comments came as a group of mayors in eastern North Carolina have petitioned the General Assembly for permission to set up their own city-run fiber networks as a public utility.
The city of Wilson set up its own fiber network in 2008, but since then the state has outlawed doing so.
WRAL News asked Gov. Cooper if he’d support letting cities set up their own fiber networks.
“I would support that effort, yes,” the governor said. “I think we should work to try to make broadband as widely accessible as possible.”
Gov. Cooper’s next stop was the health department, where he walked through their effort to get shots in arms in Lenoir County.
As of Tuesday, 41% of eligible people in Lenoir County were fully vaccinated, a higher rate than three of its neighboring counties but below the state average.
“The vast majority of the people who get sick enough to go the hospital and who die are people who are unvaccinated,” Gov. Cooper said. “And there’s still too many North Carolinians who are unvaccinated.”
With new cases and hospitalizations surging statewide due to the Delta variant, we asked the governor if he would consider once again mandating previous COVID-19 safety rules like capacity limits and gathering size restrictions for North Carolina.
Governor Cooper said while every option was still on the table to try and save lives, for the moment the state would remain all-in on one in particular.
“We’re in a different situation than we were then, in that we now have vaccinations,” the governor said. “We are laser-focused on getting shots in arms, that at the end of the day will get us over the line.”
