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COLOMBIA – Few appointments are available when Southern Carolinians aged 70 and over can start signing up for the COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday, so they shouldn’t expect to be vaccinated anytime soon, said health officials told lawmakers.
A web page (scdhec.gov/vaxlocator) shows seniors where photos are available statewide. A green dot by a health care provider indicates they have doses to administer. Red means it is already out of stock or has made appointments for its expected stock.
“There won’t be a lot of nominations,” said Marshall Taylor, acting director of the SC’s Department of Health and Environmental Control, during a state Senate hearing on Tuesday. “If it’s red, don’t waste your time calling. Green will probably turn red pretty quickly.”
Taylor didn’t know it would be long before doses became more readily available to South Carolina seniors.
The state Senate hearing took place a day after Governor Henry McMaster and DHEC announced the expansion of eligibility to anyone 70 and over.
Within an hour of the announcement, the web page had gone down. The site and phone hotline provided in the release were not ready for the immediate flood of clicks and calls, Taylor said.
“We thought when we said, ‘Look at Wednesday’, people would start clicking on Wednesday,” Taylor told senators, wondering why people couldn’t pass.
DHEC needed two days to prepare with healthcare providers, most of whom were unaware of the change in eligibility prior to the announcement, he said.
“What you’re saying is they’re going to call and try to make an appointment and an appointment won’t be made?” asked Sen. Tom Davis, a Beaufort County Republican in charge of retirees.
Getting to the DHEC site is the first of a two-step process. It will show in real time where plans are still available, but appointments must be made with suppliers. If a place on the map is green, it will give contact information.
“I’m afraid we’re all setting them up for a big disappointment,” Sen. Sandy Senn, R-Charleston, said of seniors.
As of Tuesday, 65% of the 147,200 doses of Pfizer vaccine shipped to South Carolina since mid-December have been administered, compared with 23% of Moderna doses reserved exclusively for long-term care facilities.
Almost 106,000 more injections are already reserved for healthcare workers, agents and paramedics who made appointments before the Jan. 15 deadline set by McMaster last week for eligible employees in the initial phase, according to DHEC.
“We have seen a dramatic increase in hospital appointments with health workers” because of the deadline, said Dr Brannon Traxler, DHEC director of public health, at the hearing.
DHEC encourages any senior with the ability to access the website to do so instead of calling a hotline or expecting a long wait on the phone. And come back periodically so that the red squares turn into green dots.
South Carolina receives approximately 64,000 doses per week from the federal government. Whether a vaccine supplier will schedule appointments for doses not yet received will depend on location, Taylor said.
Until this week, Southern Carolinians who don’t live or work in long-term care facilities could only get vaccinated in state hospitals. Some large private doctor’s offices may begin distributing injections this week to eligible residents.
The addition of people 70 and over to the eligibility list came after lawmakers were inundated with complaints from worried seniors wanting to be vaccinated. About 70% of all Southern Carolinians who have died from COVID-19 since March were 70 and older.
Other states, including neighboring North Carolina and Florida, had already made seniors eligible.
An appointment will be necessary, Taylor said, adding that South Carolina wanted to avoid the long lines outside hospitals and pharmacies in states such as Florida, where people have waited for hours without being able to check out. vaccinate before supply runs out.
Taylor called the two-step process of finding where the photos are available and then calling the location for a date a “short-term fix.”
“I realize it’s archaic,” he said.
But that will have to be done while DHEC works on an easier online registration system that Taylor hopes to use next week, he said, adding that it will likely take longer.
To follow Sean Adcox on Twitter at @seannaadcox_pc.
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