COLUMBIA – Few appointments are available when South Carolinians aged 70 and over can begin enrolling in the COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday, so they should not expect to receive a shot soon, official lawmakers said state health services.
A website (scdhec.gov/vaxlocator) shows seniors where shots are available statewide. A green dot from a healthcare provider indicates that you have doses to give. Red means you are already out or have booked appointments for your scheduled stock.
“There won’t be many appointments,” Marshall Taylor, acting director of SC’s Department of Health and Environmental Control, said Tuesday. “If it’s red, don’t waste time calling. Green will probably turn red pretty quickly.”
Taylor didn’t know much time would pass before doses were more readily available to South Carolina seniors.
The state Senate hearing came a day after Gov. Henry McMaster and DHEC announced expanding eligibility for anyone age 70 or older.
Within one hour of the ad, the webpage was blocked. The site and phone line provided in the statement were not prepared for the immediate flood of clicks and calls, Taylor said.
“We thought when we said,‘ Look Wednesday, ’people would start clicking on Wednesday,” Taylor told senators wondering why people couldn’t pass.
DHEC needed a two-day delay to prepare with health care providers, most of whom were unaware of the change in eligibility until the announcement, he said.
“What you’re saying is that they’ll call and try to make an appointment and no appointment will be made?” asked Senator Tom Davis, a retired Beaufort County Republican.
Going to the DHEC site is the first of a two-step process. It will be shown in real time where there are still shots available, but appointments need to be made with suppliers. If a point on the map is green, it will give contact information.
“I’m afraid we’re preparing them for a big disappointment,” Sen. Sandy Senn, R-Charleston, said about seniors.
As of Tuesday, 65% of the 147,200 doses of Pfizer vaccine shipped to South Carolina since mid-December have been given, compared to 23% of Moderna doses intended exclusively for long-term care centers. time limit.
Nearly 106,000 additional shots are already reserved for health care workers, officers and paramedics who have made an appointment before the Jan. 15 deadline McMaster set last week for eligible employees in the initial phase, according to DHEC.
“We have seen a dramatic increase in appointments in hospitals with health care workers” due to the deadline, said during the hearing Dr. Brannon Traxler, director of public health at DHEC.
DHEC encourages anyone with the option of accessing the website to do so instead of calling a hotline or waiting a long wait on the phone. And check periodically if the red squares become green dots.
South Carolina receives approximately 64,000 weekly doses from the federal government. Whether a vaccine provider will schedule appointments for doses not yet received will vary by location, Taylor said.
Until this week, South Carolinians who do not live or work in long-term care centers could only receive a shot at hospitals across the state. Some large private medical offices may begin distributing shots this week to eligible residents.
The incorporation of people aged 70 and over into the eligibility list came after lawmakers were inundated with complaints from concerned seniors who wanted to make a shot. About 70 percent of all South Carolinians who have died with COVID-19 since March were 70 or older.
Other states, including residents of North Carolina and Florida, had already elected seniors.
An appointment will be made, Taylor said, adding that South Carolina wants to avoid long queues outside hospitals and pharmacies in states like Florida, where people have waited for hours without being able to get the vaccine before the supply.
Taylor called the two-step process for finding where shots are available, and then called the location for an appointment, a “short-term solution.”
“I realize it’s archaic,” he said.
But it will have to do so while DHEC works on an easier online registration system that Taylor expects to run next week, he said, adding that it will probably take longer.
Carry on Sean Adcox on Twitter at @seannaadcox_pc.