North Carolina medical, business and nonprofit leaders and state legislators assembled by Gov. Roy Cooper have gotten behind several aspirational goals to improve health care coverage. The North Carolina Council for Health Care Coverage held its last meeting Friday, less than two months after it was created by the Democratic governor. He wanted the council to help steer state leaders toward consensus on health care access. The panel came up with “guiding principles” but didn't endorse specific policies.

The coronavirus pandemic has given some people more time to fish. And that may be why three catfish catfish records were broken last year in North Carolina. The Virginian-Pilot reports that the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission announced the new records on Wednesday. They involved three catfish species. The commission said that Pinehurst resident John Stone caught a 23-pound, 5-ounce channel catfish in a private pond in Moore County in September. Joey Baird of Lawrenceville, Virginia, caught a 121-pound, 9-ounce blue catfish in Lake Gaston in July.

Local transit agencies across North Carolina will help provide transportation to and from COVID-19 vaccine sites.  According to a news release, the N.C. Department of Transportation and the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services said Thursday that approximately $2.5 million dollars in Coronavirus Relief Funding is being distributed to transit agencies to provide transportation assistance.  Individuals who need a ride to a vaccine site should reach out to their local transit agency.

North Carolina is seeing a small amount of coronavirus vaccines thrown out for reasons including doses that weren't used in a timely manner after being taken out of a freezer. Mandy Cohen is the state's top public health official. She said at a news conference Thursday that the Department of Transportation will offer free rides to vaccination clinics for people who need transportation. People 65 years or older are currently eligible to get vaccinated. State health officials say more than 573,000 vaccines have been distributed thus far.