COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina’s vaccine advisory committee heard from several groups Wednesday who pushed to get the COVID-19 vaccine now as part of Phase 1A.
The groups included TSA workers, pilots, library staff, insurance adjusters, hospitality workers, among utility operators, among others. They showed the committee pictures of workers in a meat packing plant who can’t social distance on an assembly line. They said those workers are examples of individuals who should be vaccinated now.
But even after the presentations, the committee still voted to keep all those groups in Phase 1B. Part of the reason is simply because the vaccine is still in short supply, officials said.
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Dr. Linda Bell with the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control talked about what happened when the state opened up vaccine appointments to those 70 and older.
“Since South Carolina opened vaccines to 70 and older, demand has dramatically increased,” Dr. Bell said. “We’re not expanding past phase 1A right now.”
The state of South Carolina receives about 63,000 doses of the vaccine a week, including the Pfizer and Moderna shipments. Contrary to some reports, state leaders said South Carolina isn’t being short-changed on shipments. They blame a break down in communication which slowed delivery to front-line workers. They believe that’s now changing.
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Dr. Brannon Traxler with DHEC spoke to reporters Wednesday afternoon.
“We are now seeing every dose get rapidly taken up,” Traxler said. “Vaccine utilization has really taken off at this point.”
However, pharmacies and providers have had issues setting up vaccine clinics at many nursing homes and long-term care facilities. Some are just starting to hold those clinics and vaccinate staff and residents.
The committee meeting also featured an update on efforts to reach out to under-served communities with information about the vaccine.
That includes the Latino community, which will see messages in Spanish posted in many cities. South Carolina is leaning on the NAACP and AARP to get the word out about the vaccine to several groups of people. Those groups include people who have limited access to computers, which presents a challenge to scheduling appointments online.
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South Carolina adds some parents to vaccine list amid high demand
South Carolina health officials have slightly expanded the pool of people eligible for a COVID-19 vaccination as seniors and some health care workers continue to struggle to secure access to the lifesaving vaccine.
State Epidemiologist Dr. Linda Bell announced Wednesday that parents caring for medically fragile or severely disabled children have been added to the state’s initial phase of its vaccine plan.
There are about 3,000 people estimated to be eligible under the new category, Bell said.
It’s a small addition to the large number of people trying to get vaccinated amid limited federal vaccine shipments. Demand skyrocketed last week after the Department of Health and Environmental Control said people aged 70 and older could start getting the vaccine. Officials estimate about 627,800 South Carolinians are 70 or older. Older adults are especially vulnerable to suffer life-threatening complications from COVID-19.
Thousands flooded hospitals and the health department’s hotline with calls, leading to long wait times as hospitals and other vaccination sites rapidly filled up all their appointment slots.
The state receives about 63,000 first doses weekly and DHEC doesn’t anticipate receiving more than that allotment anytime soon, interim Public Health Director Dr. Brannon Traxler told reporters Wednesday, adding that the state requests the second doses needed to complete the vaccine schedule separately. Some hospitals have had to cancel appointments due to the limited supply.
The health department reported as of Tuesday that nearly 173,000 doses have been administered out of the 318,000 doses received by the state. As of Wednesday, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that every other state in the U.S. has received more doses per 100,000 residents than South Carolina has.
But state health officials said the South Carolina is receiving its fair share of vaccine doses, noting that the CDC data have a time lag.
Traxler added that South Carolina, unlike most other states, also chose early on to set aside all the doses it needed to vaccinate long-term care facility residents and staff, and that those allocated doses aren’t being counted in the federal tracker.
The rush to get vaccinated follows weeks of criticism by top state leaders that South Carolina was moving too slowly to get shots into the arms of health care workers, who were initially prioritized in mid-December.
Gov. Henry McMaster has blamed hospitals for the state’s slow rollout, telling reporters this week that the health systems needed to move faster, or else he or DHEC could invoke emergency powers to force them to do so.
But hospitals — facing staffing shortages as they manage a winter influx of COVID-19 patients, operate testing sites and vaccinate people — have said the limiting factor to the pace of vaccinations was simply that they were not receiving enough doses.
“We are now seeing every dose get rapidly taken up,” Traxler said Wednesday.
Still, concerned lawmakers in the South Carolina House have formed a committee to take a look at the state’s vaccine rollout. That committee is scheduled to meet Thursday morning for the first time.