Columbia leaders eager for frontline workers, residents to get COVID-19 vaccine
As the COVID-19 vaccine rollout continues to try to find its footing across South Carolina, city of Columbia leaders say they are eager for the city’s frontline workers and residents to be inoculated from the contagious virus.
City emergency management director Harry Tinsley told Columbia City Council on Jan. 5 that some members of the Columbia Fire Department, considered medical first responders, have already been getting vaccines, and others are scheduled to do so. Such first responders are among the current Phase 1a of the vaccine rollout in South Carolina. Tinsley also told the council that other city workers, including police officers, are ready to get their vaccines when Phase 1b kicks in.
Columbia Fire Chief Aubrey Jenkins has received the vaccine, as the department documented on Twitter earlier this week.
Vaccine doses began arriving in South Carolina in mid-December. As of Wednesday, state Department of Health and Environmental Control data show the state had received 146,250 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Of those, 52,168 first doses had been administered, and 1,107 second doses had been administered. (The vaccine requires an initial dose, then a second several weeks later.) South Carolina had a 36% vaccine utilization rate as of Wednesday.
Locally, Prisma Health Midlands had received 16,575 vaccine does as of Wednesday and had administered 5,283 doses, a 32% utilization rate. Lexington Medical Center had received 10,725 doses and had administered 3,190 does, for a 30% utilization rate.
Following pressure from Gov. Henry McMaster and other state elected leaders, DHEC has adjusted its guidelines on Phase 1a of the vaccine, announcing Wednesday that eligible health care workers who have not yet received a COVID-19 vaccination, but want one, should contact hospitals as soon as possible to schedule an appointment for their first dose. Previously, the department had advised individuals included in the state’s first vaccination phase to avoid reaching out to hospitals and wait to be contacted.
“To speed up the number of South Carolinians getting vaccinated, Phase 1a individuals or their employers must have contacted a provider to schedule an appointment by the Jan. 15, 2021, deadline to ensure priority for the vaccine,” DHEC tweeted on Wednesday.
Cases of the novel coronavirus continue to rip across South Carolina like a brush fire. The state health department on Wednesday announced another 4,037 new cases and 71 more deaths. More than 5,100 South Carolinians have now been killed by the virus.
“We are in a difficult and dangerous time in the life of the pandemic,” Mayor Steve Benjamin said. “It’s also wrapped in a great deal of hope as the vaccine becomes distributed all across the country. It’s maybe not off to as aggressive a start as all of us want, but still a real start.”
The city has taken a number of steps to try to slow COVID-19 spread, including closing city buildings to the public, setting up testing sites, holding council and other board meetings virtually, and passing an ordinance requiring citizens to wear face masks in public places, a law it has renewed several times in the the last seven months.
But, at the moment, the vaccine process is not one in which the city can exert as much control, as the state and medical providers try to find their groove in getting doses into people’s arms.
“This is a lot tougher than, obviously, the public policy pronouncements around masking or even as technical as testing and the great job our team and our staff did in making that happen,” Benjamin said. “Vaccine delivery is a whole different ball of wax. ... Our role in this space is going to be much different than it has been in (earlier) phases of the pandemic.”
The third-term mayor said the city is willing to do “anything and everything” it can to help with widespread vaccine utilization and noted city leaders need to be “constantly messaging the importance of taking the vaccine. “ He noted part of that includes outreach to Black and Brown communities, where there may be more distrust in the vaccine.
“The cavalry is literally on the other side of the hill,” Benjamin said. “We can hear it. ... Our job is to push people to be resilient these last several months. If we can, we’ll all be in a much better place.”
Councilwoman Tameika Isaac Devine asked Tinsley on Jan. 5 whether he was aware of any cases of a more contagious strain of COVID-19 that recently ripped through the United Kingdom and has been identified in the U.S. in a handful of states. A case of that variant of the virus was reported in Georgia this week. Tinsley said he was not aware of any such cases reported in South Carolina.
Tinsley said that as officials continue to watch for that strain of the virus in South Carolina, the importance of getting a vaccine and taking other precautions only intensifies.
“I’m not aware of any of the strain that was reported out in Colorado and some of the other states, that we have it here, yet,” Tinsley said. “I will tell you, with any of this, the vaccine and getting the vaccine out and widespread is of the utmost importance. The other is to continue mitigation strategies, through social distancing and mask wearing and things of that nature.”
This story was originally published January 7, 2021 at 11:21 AM.
