Not fully vaccinated? SC health official recommends extra precautions for holidays
Christmas is just days away. New Year’s Day arrives in a little over two weeks. That will likely mean travel and holiday gatherings with family and friends, but it also means if you haven’t received a first dose of a COVID-19 shot, you won’t be fully vaccinated in time for those end-of-year celebrations.
South Carolina’s top public health official Dr. Brannon Traxler recommends a few additional precautions for those who aren’t inoculated against COVID-19, particularly as a new, likely more vaccine-resistant virus strain emerges nationwide and in the Palmetto State.
First, Traxler said residents should still get their COVID-19 vaccines. If they’re eligible for booster doses, she said now is also the time to make appointments for those shots.
“If you have not begun your vaccination series, getting it now is not going to be in place in time, for example, for Christmas,” Traxler said. “But there are other holidays beyond Christmas that we’re going to want to gather for, not to mention everyday life.”
Roughly 56% of South Carolinians 12 years and older have received either one dose of the Janssen shot or two doses of either Moderna or Pfizer’s vaccines, meaning more than 40% of residents statewide 12 years and older won’t be fully inoculated in the next two weeks.
If residents do choose to gather with people outside of their households for the holidays, Traxler recommends they wear face masks indoors when not eating or drinking, and that they spend as much time outside as possible.
“Outdoors is better than indoors if the weather is good, and it often is in South Carolina thankfully in December,” Traxler said, adding that maintaining mitigation efforts will help ensure the state gets through the holiday months without a significant spike in COVID-19 cases.
The delta variant is still driving virus infections in South Carolina, but at least three cases of the new omicron variant have been identified in Lowcountry residents, Traxler said Wednesday. Those residents were all fully vaccinated and are experiencing mild symptoms, she added.
