As admission to vaccine opens up wider in SC, finding an appointment is still a mocking process COVID-19

For millions of people in South Carolina, March 8 was the first day they could sign up to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.

But with so many people wanting to make an appointment and thousands on waiting lists, the relaxed rules do not mean that everyone is successful in planning their shot.

A year after the first two cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in the state, approximately 2.7 million residents in South Carolina were eligible for the vaccine on Monday, including all 55 and older, those with underlying health problems or disabilities, and all who have to work personally. The new guidelines, announced last week, mean the majority of the state can look for an appointment.

But with dozens of vaccine providers to choose from, and each with different scheduling systems, it was very easy to find appointments.

Nikki Thompson called half a dozen pharmacies and the hospital group Prisma Health on the morning of March 8, and was able to plan one of the vaccinations for her vaccination.

Thompson, a stay-at-home parent for four children who qualifies for her health, initially found an appointment three hours from her home in Greenville. The couple’s four-year-old son has a chronic lung disease that has landed him in an emergency department with a cold and made the family even more cautious over the past year.

“We are counting down the days for the vaccine,” Thompson said.

Then, early in the afternoon, Thompson discovered two appointments closer to home at Ingles Pharmacy in Greenville for March 21st. The trick was to call, not to look online, she said.

Still in the final phase

South Carolina took the next steps to vaccinate as many of the public as possible before individuals with the highest priority all had a chance.

Only about a third of the state population who qualified in the first phase of qualification completed their vaccinations, according to the SC’s Department of Health and Environmental Control. The population consists of people aged 65 and over, residents and staff of long-term care facilities, health care workers and first responders.

As of March 5, approximately 531,000 people aged 65 and older received at least one dose of the vaccine, representing approximately 57 percent of the South Carolina population in that age group.

At the Medical University of South Carolina, the low vaccine supply meant that the health system could not plan new appointments for weeks. About 40,000 people are on the waiting list of MUSC, all of which qualified in the first phase of the state. It is possible that some of these thousands have since found appointments elsewhere.

In the Conway Medical Center just outside Myrtle Beach, 1,900 people from the first fitness phase are on the hospital’s waiting list. By the afternoon of March 8, more than 3,000 people had requested appointments. It is offline for most requests in a single day since the hospital opened its portal on January 13th.

Nevertheless, state health officials said enough progress had been made, and that enough appointments had been left open across the state to move on. Nick Davidson, senior deputy public health officer at DHEC, said on March 5 that “almost” all residents and staff at long-term care facilities had at least had the opportunity to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.

Availability a moving target

Now that the suitability has been further opened, DHEC recommends the public to use its website, vaxlocator.dhec.sc.gov, where dots burn green where appointments are presumably available.

A health agency spokesman said the website was updated several times daily. Nevertheless, this means that clicking on a green dot does not always mean that an appointment is guaranteed, because the slots are snapped up quickly.

“It’s important to note that the provider’s ability to schedule appointments may change each day based on the availability of vaccines – more appointments will open when facilities receive their direct delivery for the week – and because individuals make appointments to different reasons cancel, “the DHEC spokesman said. .

Demand still exceeds supply, she said.

Some providers have meanwhile sent mixed signals: despite being a designated vaccine for weeks, there was a sign on the window of a local CVS pharmacy that the COVID-19 vaccine is not currently available at CVS sites. not. The website contradicts the statement.

Educators, who are part of the group only eligible on March 8, are also likely to purchase a portion of the state’s weekly consignment of COVID-19 vaccine. Ryan Brown, spokeswoman for state superintendent Molly Spearman, said more than thirty districts announced clinics for their employees this week or next.

The nearly 123,000 K-12 employees of the state represent a small percentage of those who are just eligible. All 79 South Carolina’s school districts developed vaccination plans prior to last week’s announcement.

And while the limited supply is hampering the districts’ ability to quickly compromise these plans, especially along the coast, Brown does not have a problem.

“We’re seeing a lot of vaccine providers jump,” he said. “In general, especially in rural areas, it’s going on because of plans and that suppliers know they can knock out a large portion of the suitable people at once.”

Some people were lucky enough to gain access to the vaccine appointment scheme before they were technically opened on March 8th.

Both Vicki Viers and her husband qualify because they are in their early 60s. Viers, a Huger resident and realtor, managed to schedule an appointment for her husband on Saturday, and by Monday morning, a shot was in his arm.

Four plans to drive more than two hours to Camden on March 10 for her own appointment.

Four, originally from West Virginia, said she would be willing to drive to her home state for a vaccine if she had to. The virus kept her from the family, but also hampered her efforts to build up her real estate business, as she and her husband only moved to South Carolina about a year and a half ago. Now that she’s scheduled, Viers plans to visit her mother, who has also been vaccinated, and visit her grandchildren in Mount Pleasant and Ohio.

“I have not seen the grandchildren for a year, except through windows,” she said. “I can not wait for hugs.”

In good news for Viers and anyone looking forward to seeing their families, the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention said on March 8, it is acceptable for fully vaccinated people to gather for small indoor gatherings.

With appointments set for herself and her husband, Viers said she has moved on to a way to schedule other members of her family who are newly eligible.

Seanna Adcox Columbia’s reporting, and Nick Masuda of Myrtle Beach contributed.