COLUMBIA – Few appointments are available when South Carolina people aged 70 and older can sign up for the COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday, so they shouldn’t expect to get an injection anytime soon, state health officials told lawmakers.
A web page (scdhec.gov/vaxlocator) shows seniors where recordings are available statewide. A green dot by a health care provider indicates he has doses to give. Red means that it is already out or has made agreements for the expected stock.
“There won’t be many appointments,” Marshall Taylor, acting director of the SC Department of Health and Environmental Control, said at a senate hearing Tuesday. If it’s red, don’t waste time calling. Green will probably turn red pretty quickly. ‘
Taylor didn’t know long it will be before doses become more readily available to seniors in South Carolina.
The Senate hearing came a day after Governor Henry McMaster and DHEC announced that anyone 70 and older would be eligible.
Within an hour of the announcement, the webpage had crashed. The site and phone hotline mentioned in the release weren’t ready for the instant flood of clicks and calls, Taylor said.
“We thought when we said, ‘Look on Wednesday,’ people would start clicking on Wednesday,” Taylor told senators, wondering why people couldn’t get through.
DHEC needed the two-day delay to prepare with health care providers, most of whom were unaware of the qualifying change until the announcement, he said.
“What you say is that they are going to call and try to make an appointment and then no appointment is made?” asked Senator Tom Davis, a pensioner-laden Republican of Beaufort County.
Going to the DHEC site is the first of a two-step process. It will show in real time where recordings are still available, but agreements must be made with providers. If a spot on the map is green, it shows contact information.
“I’m afraid we will all make them all disappoint,” said seniors Sandy Senn, R-Charleston, of seniors.
As of Tuesday, 65 percent of the 147,200 Pfizer vaccine doses shipped to South Carolina since mid-December have been given, compared to 23 percent of the Moderna doses reserved exclusively for long-term care facilities.
According to DHEC, nearly 106,000 additional shots have already been reserved for health workers, officers and paramedics who have made appointments before the January 15 deadline set by McMaster last week for employees who qualify for the initial phase.
“We have seen a dramatic increase in hospital appointments with health professionals” due to the deadline, said Dr. Brannon Traxler, DHEC’s director of public health, at the hearing.
DHEC encourages any senior with the ability to access the website to do so rather than calling a hotline or expecting a long wait on the phone. And check regularly if red squares turn into green dots.
South Carolina receives about 64,000 doses from the federal government every week. Whether a vaccine provider will schedule appointments for doses not yet received will vary by location, Taylor said.
Until this week, South Carolina people who don’t live or work in long-term care facilities could only stand a chance at hospitals nationwide. Some large private doctor’s offices may begin handing out photos to eligible residents this week.
Adding people 70 and older to the eligibility list came after lawmakers were inundated with complaints from concerned seniors seeking a chance. About 70 percent of all South Carolina people who have died from COVID-19 since March were 70 and older.
Other states, including neighboring North Carolina and Florida, had already considered seniors.
An appointment is required, Taylor said, adding that South Carolina wants to avoid the long lines outside hospitals and pharmacies in states like Florida, where people have waited hours without being able to get a vaccine before supplies ran out.
Taylor called the two-step process of finding where recordings are available and then calling the location for an appointment, a “ short-term solution. ”
“I realize it’s archaic,” he said.
But it will have to do while DHEC works on a simpler, online filing system that Taylor hopes will run next week, he said, adding that it will likely take longer.
To follow Sean Adcox on Twitter at @seannaadcox_pc.