Beaufort Co. hospitals reschedule 1,000 COVID-19 vaccinations due to shipping delays
Hospitals in Beaufort and Jasper counties were forced to reschedule roughly 1,000 coronavirus inoculations this week as a winter storm delayed vaccine shipments across South Carolina on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Beaufort Memorial Hospital rescheduled about 1,000 first dose appointments that were originally booked though next Tuesday, the medical center confirmed Wednesday.
“We are only vaccinating second dose patients,” spokesperson Courtney McDermott wrote in a statement.
She added that the hospital wasn’t booking additional first dose appointments for now.
The medical center’s shipments were delayed due to the weather and Presidents’ Day, which is a federal holiday, McDermott wrote.
Hilton Head Regional Healthcare was in the same boat Wednesday.
“Due to circumstances outside of our control, we are rescheduling fewer than 100 first dose appointments to next week,” wrote spokesperson Daisy Burroughs in a statement. “Fortunately, we anticipate accommodating all of the nearly 2,000 second dose appointments scheduled for this week.”
The immediate impact on local pharmacies was less clear.
Kroger as of Wednesday had yet to receive the doses it expected this week, a spokesperson said. The company, he said, can’t schedule additional first dose appointments until shipments arrive.
Spokespeople for other pharmacies didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Nick Davidson, senior deputy for public health at the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, told reporters Wednesday that vaccine providers around the Southeast were affected after a major snow storm hit Memphis and Louisville, where FedEx and UPS, respectively, have distribution hubs.
DHEC is working to compile data on how many providers were impacted, Davidson said.
He added that DHEC expects more delays Thursday.
“As far as the overall vaccine rollout goes, it will just be a blip,” he said. “The supplies will all be coming, and I’m pretty confident — given that providers continually tell us that they can do more vaccinations than we have supply — I can only imagine that they’ll make up for lost time very, very quickly.”
