‘First priority’: Hospitals in Beaufort, Jasper Co. prepare for coronavirus vaccines
The COVID-19 vaccines are on the way, but it’s still unclear when they’ll arrive in Beaufort and Jasper counties.
The state’s sprawling vaccination campaign is set to begin as early as Monday, after federal regulators approved Pfizer and BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine for emergency use late Friday.
The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette have confirmed that Beaufort Memorial, Hilton Head and Coastal Carolina hospitals are all enrolled in the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control’s vaccine distribution network.
Providers in the network will receive shipments of Pfizer’s vaccine directly, according to DHEC.
But the state has yet to name 15 specific locations that are getting the initial supply of doses. The 15 sites can redistribute vaccines to their “affiliated” locations, meaning there could be up to 56 sites by the end of this week, according to DHEC spokesperson Laura Renwick.
Hospital spokespeople told the newspapers last week that some Prisma Health and Medical University of South Carolina medical centers are anticipating vaccine allocations right away.
Not all providers are expected to get doses immediately.
Here’s what we know so far.
A complicated roll out
DHEC expects to receive 200,000 to 300,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines by year’s end, including from Moderna, a biotech company that is also seeking federal approval for its vaccine candidate. DHEC has yet to specify how many doses may be in the Palmetto State by Monday.
Regardless, it will be an extremely limited supply.
The state is setting aside roughly half of the initial December allocation for a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention program that will vaccinate long-term care residents and staff through CVS and Walgreens.
The remaining doses are going to critical health care workers, according to DHEC’s distribution plan.
Experts have previously told the newspapers that hospitals with ultra-cold storage capabilities will probably be prioritized during South Carolina’s first round of vaccinations, called Phase 1a.
Pfizer’s vaccine needs to be stored at Antarctic temperatures of -70 degrees Celsius.
It’s not a requirement that vaccine providers have an ultra-cold freezer because the drug maker is shipping doses in special containers filled with replenishable dry ice.
But having a super-cold storage option improves a hospital’s chances of getting doses first, experts say.
“You also have to look at how many employees you’re trying to vaccinate as well,” said Dr. Krutika Kuppalli, an infectious diseases expert at MUSC, in a previous interview.
Other health care facilities in Beaufort and Jasper counties can enroll in the vaccine network and get doses, but hospitals are likely first on the list.
Beaufort Memorial Hospital, though, did not have ultra-cold freezers as of early December, according to spokesperson Courtney McDermott.
Daisy Burroughs, a spokesperson for Tenet Healthcare, which owns Hilton Head and Coastal Carolina hospitals, in a statement Wednesday wrote that the two medical centers are “prepared to handle the storage requirements.”
Based on that information and interviews with experts, it’s possible the hospitals in Beaufort and Jasper counties might have to wait before vaccinations begin.
DHEC, however, has also selected a “centralized distributing site” in South Carolina where the agency can help get doses to smaller providers, health officials say.
Details about that site are unknown, but the plan does give hospitals hope that big medical networks like MUSC’s and Prisma’s won’t be the only S.C. locations to first receive vaccines.
“Beaufort Memorial will follow the state recommendations for prioritizing subgroups (in Phase 1a),” Russell Baxley, CEO of the medical center, wrote in a statement Friday.
At Gov. Henry McMaster’s COVID-19 news conference Wednesday, “healthcare workers and first responders were specifically identified as first priority,” Baxley wrote.
What does this mean for everyone else?
The general public won’t have access to vaccines until sometime in 2021.
Until then, DHEC is warning residents to continue following COVID-19 safety guidelines, especially as cases surge across the Lowcountry after Thanksgiving.
Those DHEC recommendations include wearing a face mask when in public, social distancing and avoiding large indoor gatherings, among other things.
South Carolina on Friday logged a record-breaking single-day high of new infections, and Beaufort County announced 106 cases, a near-record number.
“Hope is present. This is really a pivotal change because we are seeing this vaccine, not just as a hypothetical, but it is a reality now,” said Dr. Brannon Traxler, DHEC’s interim director of public health, at a vaccine event Thursday with Vice President Mike Pence in Greenville.
“We all have to be patient and continue to wait our turn.”
