State health agency asks for patience on vaccine rollout as COVID-19 cases soar in SC
South Carolina’s public health agency pleaded for patience Saturday as COVID-19 vaccines continue a methodical rollout across the state.
State Department and Health and Environmental Control interim public health director Dr. Brannon Traxler also said during a Saturday news conference that she expects vaccine utilization rates to speed up in coming weeks.
“At this time, South Carolina, like other states across the nation, does have limited doses of that COVID-19 vaccine,” Traxler said. “We continue to ask everyone to please be patient, wait your turn, and listen to your public health officials. Doing this will allow public health officials to ensure that the most vulnerable in our state and those who are keeping us all alive are vaccinated first.”
As of Jan. 1, South Carolina had received 112,125 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, and had administered 41,431 doses, good for a 37% utilization rate.
On a local level, a DHEC database showed Prisma Health Midlands had received 13,650 doses of the Pfizer vaccine as of Jan. 1 and had administered 3,816 doses, for a utilization rate of 28%. Lexington Medical Center had received 10,725 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, and had administered 2,539 doses, for a 24% utilization rate.
South Carolina currently is in Phase 1a of the vaccination rollout, with the focus being on health care workers — with a key emphasis on health care employees critical to the mission of preventing death, according to DHEC. Residents and staff of nursing homes and long-term care facilities are also part of the initial phase.
The rare Saturday morning, holiday weekend news conference came just days after Republican Gov. Henry McMaster and some state legislators began expressing displeasure about the slow trickle of information about the vaccine rollout in South Carolina.
“I ask that the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control immediately make available to the public a complete accounting of the status and location of every COVID-19 vaccine dose that has been received and distributed in the state,” McMaster wrote in a Dec. 31 letter to DHEC board chairman Mark Elam.
“This information should be immediately disclosed on DHEC’s online COVID-19 information dashboard as well,” the governor continued. “The disclosure of this information is critical to maintaining the public’s confidence and participation in the COVID-19 vaccination effort.”
State Sen. Dick Harpootlian, a Columbia attorney, also said he has been getting questions from constituents about the vaccine rollout.
“People want to know where they can get vaccinated and when,” Harpootlian, a Democrat, told The State on New Year’s Day. “They regard this as a total failure of government to deliver a life-saving service.”
On Saturday, Traxler said she expects that people will begin receiving vaccines more rapidly in coming weeks.
“I think it has been very smooth, up to this point, considering all of the logistical complexities that do go into place for this vaccine,” Traxler said of the vaccine rollout in South Carolina. “But, we also have faced things like the holidays, which have occurred just in the first two or three weeks of the vaccine administration.
“I believe that we are seeing an increase, and will continue to see over the next couple of weeks, a very rapid increase in the utilization rate of the vaccine.”
COVID-19 vaccines are starting to enter the populace at a moment when South Carolina is facing its most difficult fight against the highly contagious virus. On Saturday, the state announced 4,219 new virus cases and 84 more deaths. Nearly 5,000 South Carolinians, in total, have been killed by the virus.
DHEC spokeswoman Cristi Moore told The State on Saturday that the health agency is monitoring vaccine allocation throughout South Carolina and will reallocate vaccines to areas that need them. The agency “will not allow facilities to hoard or stockpile vaccines,” she said.
Traxler said there have been discussions with the South Carolina National Guard about its medics being used to assist with vaccinations. She said DHEC also is working with the state hospital association to encourage and help the hospitals with vaccinations for health care officials who are not associated with hospital systems.
DHEC announced it will, on Wednesday, launch an “online vaccine overview dashboard.” Until that launch, the state health department says it will update a spreadsheet on vaccine distribution daily. The agency also urged the public to visit scdhec.gov/vaxfacts for vaccine information.
Meanwhile, a second type of vaccine, from Moderna, is being administered to residents and staff of long-term care facilities and nursing homes. Those vaccinations are being catalogued in a national database that isn’t expected to be available until after Jan. 4.
This story was originally published January 2, 2021 at 1:48 PM.
