First allocation of vaccines complete in S.C.

Listen to this article

South Carolina has received 42,900 Pfizer vaccines, completing its first allocation, and frontline medical workers are continuing to be vaccinated.

As of Wednesday, 15 public health facilities had received doses of the COVID-19 vaccine directly from the federal government, according to a news release from the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control.

States will continue to receive additional vaccine allocations each week, according to DHEC, which said South Carolina expects to receive between 200,000 and 300,000 doses by the end of the year. Vaccinations are being administered in accordance with DHEC guidelines (.pdf). Additional information is available online.

In a statement released Wednesday, state epidemiologist Dr. Linda Bell urged patience and continued adherence to safety precautions such as wearing masks and social distancing.

“As we patiently wait for additional vaccines, it’s important to understand that it may take months to vaccinate enough of our population that it would allow us to change some of our current safety practices,” Bell said. “This means we must all continue to take the small steps that make a big difference, including wearing our masks, getting tested and staying home when we’re sick, avoiding group gatherings, practicing physical distancing, and, when it’s our turn, getting vaccinated.”

Bell encouraged residents to get vaccinated when able to do so and said DHEC is “confident enough vaccines will be available for everyone within the next year.”

“We now have the ability to do our part to protect ourselves and others to end this pandemic by getting vaccinated,” Bell said. “When it’s my turn, I’ll be among the first waiting in line to roll up my sleeve and get vaccinated.”

On Wednesday, DHEC announced 2,424 confirmed new COVID-19 cases in the state and 42 confirmed deaths, bringing the total of confirmed cases to 241,471 and confirmed deaths to 4,444. Of 11,786 new test results reported Wednesday, 20.6% were positive.

In Richland County, 74.5% of acute hospital beds were occupied, according to DHEC data, with 89.5%  occupied in Lexington County.