COLUMBIA – There are few appointments available when South Carolina 70-year-olds and older can start registering for the COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday, so they should not expect to get a chance soon, health officials told lawmakers.
A website (scdhec.gov/vaxlocator) shows seniors where shots are available around the world. A green dot by a healthcare provider indicates that it has doses to give. Red means it is already out or has booked appointments for its expected inventory.
“There will not be many appointments,” Marshall Taylor, acting director of the SC’s department of health and environmental control, said during a Senate hearing on Tuesday. “If it’s red, do not waste your time calling. Green will probably turn red pretty quickly.”
Taylor did not know for a long time that it would be long before doses became more readily available to seniors in South Carolina.
The trial in the state Senate took place a day after Governor Henry McMaster and DHEC announced they were eligible for anyone 70 years and older.
Within an hour of the announcement, the webpage crashed. The persons and the telephone line available in the version 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, asking why people could not get through.
DHEC needs the two-day delay to prepare with healthcare providers, most of whom were unaware until the announcement of the fitness change.
“What do you say, they’re going to call and try to make an appointment and an appointment will not be made?” asks Senator Tom Davis, a retired Beaufort County Republican.
Going to the DHEC website is the first step in two steps. It will show in real time where photos are still available, but appointments need to be made with suppliers. If a spot on the map is green, it will give contact information.
“I’m afraid we’ll all disappoint,” Sen. Sandy Senn, R-Charleston, said about seniors.
As of Tuesday, 65 percent of the 147,200 Pfizer vaccine doses sent to South Carolina since mid-December are up, compared with 23 percent of the Moderna doses set aside exclusively for long-term care facilities.
Nearly 106,000 additional shots have already been reserved for health workers, officers and paramedics who made appointments before the Jan. 15 deadline set by McMaster last week for employees eligible in the initial phase, according to DHEC.
“We have seen a dramatic increase in appointments in hospitals with health workers” due to the deadline, Dr Brannon Traxler, director of public health at DHEC, said during the trial.
DHEC encourages any parent with access to the site to do so instead of calling a hotline, or expecting a long wait on the phone. And check regularly to see if red squares are turning into green dots.
South Carolina receives approximately 64,000 doses from the federal government weekly. Whether a vaccine provider will schedule appointments for doses not yet received will vary by location, Taylor said.
Until this week, South Carolina who do not live or work in long-term care facilities can only get a chance at hospitals in the state. Some large private doctor’s offices can start handing out shots to eligible residents this week.
The addition of people 70 and older to the fitness list comes after lawmakers were flooded with complaints from concerned seniors wanting to shoot. About 70 percent of all South Carolines who died with COVID-19 since March were 70 and older.
Other states, including neighboring North Carolina and Florida, have already made seniors eligible.
An appointment is needed, Taylor said. South Carolina wants to avoid the long queues outside hospitals and pharmacies in states like Florida, where people have waited hours without getting a vaccine before supplies run out.
Taylor calls the two-step process of determining where shots are available, and then calls the place 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 sign-up system that Taylor hopes will be up and running next week, he said, adding that it is likely to take longer.
Follow Seanna Adcox on Twitter at @seannaadcox_pc.