Surge in SC COVID-19 cases has strained hospitals, slowed vaccine rollout, DHEC says
South Carolina public health officials Monday partially attributed the state’s sluggish rate of COVID-19 vaccine administration to the recent surge in coronavirus cases and its impact on hospital staffing.
Brannon Traxler, the Department of Health and Environmental Control’s interim public health director, said the explosion of COVID-19 cases in recent weeks had strained the state’s health care facilities and hindered the agency’s already challenging vaccination campaign.
“One of the things we need people to do to help speed up the utilization or the administration of the vaccine is for everyone to do their part to lower the spread of this virus, which is at record levels that we haven’t seen before in our state,” Traxler said during a media briefing Monday. “It will help remove the burden from our hospitals and other health care providers that they’re currently experiencing, and so that will allow more health care workers to be available to administer vaccines.”
As of Monday, South Carolina had received 129,675 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, but administered only 43,227 of them, a 33% utilization rate, according to DHEC.
The federal government has distributed the vast majority (89%) of Pfizer vaccine shipments directly to 16 health care facilities across the state. The remaining 11% of doses were sent to DHEC’s distribution center for redistribution to facilities that lack the ultra-cold storage capabilities necessary to store the Pfizer vaccine.
DHEC has distributed 5,882 of the 14,625 doses (40%) it received to 19 health care facilities, including two that also received direct shipments from the federal government, the agency said.
Most of the facilities that received vaccine shipments from DHEC have already administered them, according to agency data, but only one-third of the vaccine doses sent directly to hospitals have been administered.
Lexington Medical Center, for example, has received more than 10,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine but had administered only 2,600 as of Monday, one of the lower utilization rates in the state, according to DHEC.
In a statement Monday, the hospital said it began vaccinating front line health care workers Dec. 15, the first day it received a shipment of the vaccine, and has continued doing so using a administration schedule that prioritizes workers based on the extent of contact they have with COVID-19 patients and their likelihood to benefit from the vaccine.
Lexington Medical Center said that as it waits for guidance from DHEC about administering the vaccine to community members, it is using its remaining inventory to vaccinate every hospital employee who wants a dose.
“It’s important to protect the hospital’s entire workforce so that Lexington Medical Center can continue to care for our community during the pandemic,” the hospital said in a statement. “Each of our employees plays a vital role in operating the hospital. Lexington Medical Center has also offered the vaccine to Lexington County first responders.”
Prisma Health, which has administered less than 30% of the 34,000 combined vaccine doses it’s received from the federal government, said Monday that it started offering vaccinations at all 12 of its acute care campuses last week and was now doing more than 1,000 per day.
In addition to frontline medical staff, the state’s largest hospital system is also offering vaccinations to local EMTs and firefighters, spokeswoman Tammie Epps said.
Next week, Prisma will expand its vaccination efforts to include workers at free community medical clinics, school nurses, dentists, oral surgeons and funeral home personnel, she said.
DHEC officials said they didn’t believe vaccine hesitancy among health care professionals was a primary cause for the low utilization rates.
Traxler said she hadn’t heard of many health care workers declining the vaccine, as has been reported in other states, but said the agency was aware of some medical professionals who expressed a desire to wait and see how others responded to the vaccine before getting it themselves.
She discouraged any health care professionals who were considering waiting on the vaccine from doing so and said they should get it as soon as they’re able.
“One of the things we will be looking at to move to Phase 1b is appointment rates and utilization rates, also, of the vaccine,” she said. “And so I would not want somebody to miss out on their turn in Phase 1a because they were delaying it or waiting for a while.”
The state’s vaccination plan calls for frontline health care workers and long-term care facility residents and staff to receive the vaccine during the initial phase of the rollout, Phase 1a, with the primary focus on averting deaths.
In addition to its distributions of the Pfizer vaccine, South Carolina also has received 84,500 doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, which is being reserved for long-term care facility residents and staff as part of a federal program. DHEC officials said Monday that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had yet to provide them data on the number of Moderna vaccine doses that had been administered in the state.
Both vaccines, which were more than 90% efficacious in clinical trials, require two doses spaced several weeks apart.
South Carolina on Monday began receiving its first shipment of Pfizer booster shots, which must be administered 21 days after the initial vaccination, Traxler said.
The state received 16,575 doses of Pfizer boosters Monday, but has not yet administered any, according to DHEC.
Despite the challenges posed by the unprecedented vaccination campaign, Traxler said she expects inoculation rates to increase rapidly in the coming weeks as both the state and health care facilities grow more accustomed to the process.
She said South Carolinians could facilitate the vaccine rollout by continuing to wear masks, avoiding large gatherings and getting tested regularly.
“If there were fewer people who were getting sick from COVID-19 and having to be admitted and taken care of if they’re critically ill, then that would be more energy and attention that could be focused on vaccination rollout,” Traxler said.
State health officials reported another 3,492 confirmed COVID-19 cases Monday, the 11th time more than 3,000 daily cases have been reported in the past month.
Prior to December, South Carolina had never reported more than 2,343 cases in a single day. It’s now exceeded that total on 21 separate days in the last month.
The percentage of those who test positive for COVID-19 has also surged in recent weeks, reaching a record-high Monday when more than a third of the tests reported were positive, an indication the virus is even more widespread in the community than the numbers let on.
While some states have opened up vaccine administration to non-nursing home residents who are elderly or have preexisting conditions, South Carolina officials said Monday they anticipate continuing to vaccinate only frontline health care workers and residents and staff of long-term care facilities for the foreseeable future.
Traxler said she doesn’t anticipate the state moving into Phase 1b of its vaccine rollout, which would encompass people 75 and over, until some time in February.
Vaccinations are not expected to be available to the general public until late spring, continuing into summer and early fall, she said.
This story was originally published January 4, 2021 at 4:17 PM.