Elderly hospital patients in SC to get coronavirus vaccine, DHEC says
The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control announced plans Friday to make it easier for some elderly hospital patients to receive coronavirus vaccines, a day after healthcare executives urged the agency to loosen restrictions.
In a news release, the agency said hospitals should now offer vaccinations to inpatients who are 65 and older who don’t have COVID 19. The announcement is part of the effort to speed up vaccinations to protect people from the coronavirus, the agency said.
“It is within our state’s best interest to allow hospitals to begin vaccinating their admitted patients who are aged 65 years and older,” said Brannon Traxler, DHEC’s interim health director. “By moving up these patients who are currently admitted in our hospitals we are ensuring that the most vulnerable among us are being vaccinated as quickly as possible.”
Patients in hospitals who don’t have the coronavirus have been added to the priority list for vaccinations, a phase known as 1A. That’s the highest priority category for receiving the vaccines.
The agency’s news release said DHEC, Gov. Henry McMaster and hospitals “agree this will be another great step toward vaccinating our most vulnerable residents. Vaccination to these individuals can occur immediately, depending on availability of vaccine and staffing.’’
During Thursday’s DHEC board meeting, Lexington Medical Center chief executive Tod Augsburger said not all of those eligible for vaccinations — namely, health care workers — were taking advantage of the opportunity. He said the agency should consider allowing the elderly to be inoculated.
DHEC has urged healthcare workers in Phase 1A to schedule appointments with their local hospitals by Jan. 15 or risk losing their priority status, as demand from others grows.
DHEC’s decision to allow vaccinations for hospitalized patients over 65 does not extend to people already infected with COVID 19, an agency spokeswoman said. Other methods are being used to treat active patients, DHEC’s Cristi Moore said.
Vaccines are intended for prevention, rather than active treatment of COVID 19, medical experts say. They help people develop immunity to a virus, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The agency’s decision Friday also does not resolve all questions about the vaccine roll out, including covering elderly patients who are not hospitalized.
The pace at which vaccines are being given has drawn the ire of state legislators, who have complained that DHEC rules were preventing people who need vaccines from getting them. Hospital executives voiced those concerns at Thursday’s agency board meeting.
Sen. Dick Harpootlian, one of the sharpest critics of the vaccination rollout, called on DHEC to make vaccines available to more people than hospital patients who are 65 and older.
He wants DHEC to immediately allow vaccinations for people in the second highest priority category, known as 1B. That includes anyone 75 years old or older. He also wants vaccinations to be given at large sites, such as the State Fairgrounds, so that people will have equal access to the vaccines.
In a letter Friday to DHEC, Harpootlian said Centers for Disease Control and Prevention rules allow more flexibility than the agency has shown.
“There is no reason to wait until Jan. 15,’’ according to Harpootlian’s letter to DHEC acting director, Marshall Taylor.
Since the state received its first COVID-19 vaccines in mid-December, 62,632 people in the highest priority category for inoculation have received their first dose, DHEC said. Another 7,698 have received their second dose, the department said.
All told, nearly 84,000 people in the 1A priority category have made appointments for vaccinations. During a news conference Friday, Traxler said the number of appointments is on the rise, with about 10,000 to 15,000 known to have been scheduled in recent days.
Despite the push by hospital executives to loosen the restrictions on who can get vaccines, Traxler said Friday’s announcement was not a direct response to frustrations hospitals aired this week. But Traxler said the agency’s change in vaccination guidance did come in consultation with members of South Carolina’s hospital community.
She said DHEC has been in frequent communication with the state’s hospitals throughout the pandemic and is continuously evaluating whether to add additional groups to the vaccination list.
Giving hospitals the go-ahead to vaccinate elderly admitted patients affords them the opportunity to inoculate a particularly vulnerable subset of the population without risking depletion of its vaccine stores, she said.
“Focusing on ones that are hospitalized for non-COVID reasons will focus on an aspect of that population that is more susceptible to more severe disease, as they’re more likely to have underlying health conditions, if they’re admitted in the hospital,” Traxler said.
She said she didn’t know the current number of patients aged 65 and older who were hospitalized statewide, adding that it would vary by hospital.
Traxler said the COVID-19 vaccine is considered appropriate even for people with weakened or compromised immune systems, meaning that elderly patients hospitalized for other ailments should be fine receiving a dose.
She did, however, discourage elderly South Carolinians from having themselves admitted to the hospital as a means of getting vaccinated.
This story has been updated.
This story was originally published January 8, 2021 at 3:49 PM.
