COLUMBIA – All South Carolinians aged 16 and over become eligible to receive a vaccine against COVID-19 on March 31, ending the need to qualify for a classification category almost five weeks before planned.
The announcement that opens access to all adults comes as supply is catching up with the demand for the shot that can save lives, said Nick Davidson, deputy director of the Department of Health and Environmental Control. ‘State.
Appointments are available to more than 400 vaccine providers statewide, and a sharp increase in doses allocated by the federal government should open more time slots than ever before, he said.
South Carolina suppliers will collectively receive nearly 236,000 doses next week, combining the first doses of the two-shot Pfizer and Modern brands and the Johnson & Johnson solo vaccine. That’s nearly double the doses shipped statewide a month ago, according to DHEC.
“Making everything eligible will help fill those gaps,” Davidson said, though the recognition of the ad will likely result in an influx of people looking for a trait that may make them hard to find temporarily.
The move follows several other states doing the same, including neighboring Georgia, where anyone 16 or older can make an appointment starting March 25th.
Younger children are still unable to receive a shot because the vaccines did not test them in the trials that led to their federal authorization. Of the three vaccines authorized so far, only the two-shot Pfizer brand can be given to 16- and 17-year-olds. The results of studies on children up to the age of 12 could come out this summer.
Deployment of vaccines in South Carolina began in mid-December with a focus on health care workers, long-term care residents, and first aid. Age began to be a major factor in January, when people over the age of 70 were added to the eligibility list.
Health officials have repeatedly said eligibility rules were designed to give priority to those at risk of serious illness or death, while weekly shipments to suppliers came nowhere near meeting demand.
Of the nearly 9,100 South Carolinians who have died with COVID-19 in the past year, 94 percent of them were 55 or older; 65 percent of them had underlying health problems, with heart disease and diabetes being the most common, according to the DHEC.
The state officially moved to Phase 1B on March 8, when an estimated 2.7 million South Carolinians became eligible. The broad expansion not only included anyone 55 years of age or older, but included anyone 16 and older with certain health conditions and disabilities, and any worker who cannot socially distance themselves from the job. work.
This opened up access to the vast majority of adults anyway.
To simplify things, DHEC told vaccine providers that they no longer needed any eligibility checks, letting the person who registered an appointment be trustworthy about the qualification. This allowed, basically, any adult who wanted to make a shot.
Since March 8, hundreds of vaccine providers in the state – hospitals, pharmacies, emergency centers and public clinics – have given an average of more than 23,300 shots a day.
The latest announcement blows up DHEC’s plan to move to Phase 1C in mid-April, with the intention of adding anyone between the ages of 45 and 54 who was not included in other eligibility categories and then open it. officially to everyone. May 3.
More than 1.2 million South Carolinians have begun the vaccination process and about 55 percent have received all the traits needed for full vaccination, representing about 15 percent of the population, according to DHEC data.
It is still a long way from reaching the goal of herd immunity, which is when enough people are immunized to prevent the virus from easily finding new victims when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or speaks.
A full return to pre-pandemic normalcy, without masks and social distancing, will lead to at least 70 percent of the population being immunized, Davidson said.
How quickly this happens will depend on people’s willingness to roll up their sleeves and studies show that a good portion of the population is hesitant or refuses to do so.
“If someone is on the fence to get their shot and plans not to, it’s like a police officer wearing only a bulletproof vest in the middle of his chest,” Davidson said about stopping falling ill with COVID- 19 at random. “You may be lucky, but no. It’s a deadly decision.”
Dr. Michael Kacka, DHEC’s medical consultant, took a different approach, appealing to people’s desire to put the pandemic in the rearview mirror.
“I’m ready for things to get back to normal and really our only way to get things back to normal is for people to choose to get vaccinated,” he said. “Not only will it provide you with this protection against COVID-19, but it will eventually bring us back to a more normal life, which I think we are ready for now.”
Carry on Sean Adcox on Twitter at @seannaadcox_pc.