McMaster asks SC hospitals to cut elective surgeries and shift staff to COVID vaccines
Gov. Henry McMaster asked leaders of South Carolina hospitals Friday to again reduce non-emergency procedures, but this time to shift employees to help speed up the state’s COVID-19 vaccination efforts.
The move comes as criticism continues to get louder over how few eligible South Carolinians have gotten the shot.
“As you are aware, our hospitals are increasingly faced with acute nursing and staff shortages due to the rising number of COVID-19 in-patients receiving treatment, internal and external virus testing operations and a growing public demand for increased and expedited access to vaccinations,” the governor wrote on Friday to Thornton Kirby, head of the South Carolina Hospital Association.
Reducing elective procedures, the governor said, would increase the number of vaccines delivered every hour and day. And it also would “help improve the public’s confidence and participation in our state’s COVID-19 response,” McMaster wrote.
South Carolina’s elected leaders have for days blasted the state’s speed of administering COVID-19 vaccines.
The state ranks among the worst in its per capita rate of COVID-19 vaccines received. It also ranks near last in its per capita rate of COVID-19 vaccines administered, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The state’s Department of Health and Environmental Control, however, has disputed the CDC’s information.
South Carolina had received 313,100 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines.
Of those doses, 146,219 had been administered as of Friday.
On Thursday, due to the staff shortage of those able to administer the vaccine, health leaders announced they are expanding the number of medical professionals to medical students, retired or inactive nurses and unlicensed medical assistants to give the vaccine.
Zak Koeske contributed to this report.
This story was originally published January 15, 2021 at 3:28 PM with the headline "McMaster asks SC hospitals to cut elective surgeries and shift staff to COVID vaccines."
